Abstract
Introduction: Published examination counts and report-date completeness are distinct organisational measures. We examined within-provider changes in activity and the share reported after 28 days in England’s diagnostic imaging providers, separately from between-provider differences.
Methods: We analysed eight quarters from finalised public Diagnostic Imaging Dataset (DIDS) workbooks for financial years 2023/24 (April 2023–March 2024) and 2024/25 (April 2024–March 2025). A pre-estimate source-identity amendment restricted models to a complete R-coded provider panel. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) models used provider/quarter fixed effects, acute-setting share and provider-level uncertainty. Unknown-date identification bounds, rounding and planned cohort/specification sensitivities were kept distinct.
Results: The primary panels comprised 70 CT and 67 MRI providers, or 1096 provider–quarters. Within-provider coefficients per doubling of published activity were 8.49 percentage points for CT (95% cluster confidence interval −2.64 to 19.62) and 7.92 for MRI (−2.86 to 18.70). Unknown-date fixed-design bounds were 1.41–14.36 and 2.99–12.79, respectively; these are not confidence intervals. Removing the unknown-date cutoff expanded cohorts to 99 and 103 providers and yielded coefficients of 3.79 and 3.83.
Conclusion: Within-provider point estimates were positive but imprecise and compatible with zero. Missing-date bounds, between-provider contrasts and expanded cohorts describe different targets or uncertainty layers. The selected organisational aggregates do not establish causal congestion, urgency-specific compliance, national performance or patient benefit.
Keywords
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Tomography
- X-Ray Computed
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Workload
- Time Factors
- State Medicine
Declarations
- Ethics approval
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- Consent to participate
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- Consent for publication
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- Funding
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- Competing interests
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- Author contributions
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- Data availability
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- Registration
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- Acknowledgements
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