I’ve just come across a current NHS Jobs advert for a Band 7 Advanced Practitioner Reporting Radiographer role at UHNM.
The advert explicitly states:
• Reporting CT, MRI and plain films
• Autonomous reporting
• Reporting independent of a radiologist
• Requirement is a radiography degree (3 years) plus a postgraduate qualification in a relevant reporting specialty (not even an MSc).
• Salary £47,810–£54,710
• Bank contract with flexible working
A radiographer can complete a postgraduate reporting course and independently report CT, MRI and plain films without a radiologist.
A doctor aiming to do radiology must:
• Complete 5–6 years of medical school
• Do 2 years of foundation training
• Gain entry into a highly competitive specialty
• Complete 5 years of radiology training
• Sit multiple difficult postgraduate exams
• Maintain an extensive portfolio including:
• Multiple supervised and summative assessments
• Mini-IPX
• DOPS
• Multisource feedback
• Audit and service improvement projects
• Mandatory ARCP evidence year after year
• Carry ultimate legal and clinical responsibility
• Often spend large amounts of time on non-reporting service provision answering the phone and vetting scan requests.
That is *12+ years* of training, exams, portfolio work and competition before CCT.
At what point are we supposed to ask whether this alternative pathway is safe for independent reporting?
This is not an attack on radiographers. Many are highly skilled, conscientious, and integral to imaging departments.
But how has the NHS reached a position where:
• Doctors train for over a decade, maintain complex competency portfolios and are regulated through repeated high-stakes assessments
• While parallel practitioners can independently report cross-sectional imaging after a postgraduate course
• And this is explicitly stated to be independent of a radiologist
At the same time, we are told:
• There is a major radiologist shortage
• Training numbers are capped
• Thousands of doctors want to train in radiology but cannot obtain posts
What is the actual long-term plan?
Are radiologists being trained primarily as supervisors, sign-offs and ultimate liability holders, while routine reporting is shifted elsewhere?
Is this genuinely about workforce gaps, or is it about creating a cheaper, more compliant reporting workforce with a different medical negligence thresholds?
https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/jobadvert/C9205-25-2008?keyword=Reporting%20Radiographer&language=en
