First GP practice goes live with electronic radiology requesting

September 18th 2023

A pilot project of electronic radiology requesting for GPs has successfully gone live in a South Wales practice. Radiology requests from primary care follow the success of electronic pathology test requests which are now being used by over 350 practices across Wales.

Electronic requesting replaces the reliance on paper and letters within practices, and between practices and hospitals.  It saves time and money, and increases safety. Rather than requesting a blood test, or radiology test, via paper forms, or other paper-based routes, the GP is able to complete an e-form which sends the request directly to the radiology department, and then receive the results digitally.

The team behind electronic test requesting are now monitoring the radiology service from the first pilot practice before launching it into more practices.  After a review and further developments, the service will be made available to all practices in Wales. Longer term plans for electronic test requesting in primary care are to expand into other areas, including histopathology and gynaecology.

The number of pathology test requests made electronically over the last 12 months has reached almost 2.9 million.