Evaluating a mobile community X-ray service in Rotherham

Taking an X-ray service into the community is reducing hospital admissions in Rotherham and providing a convenient and stress-free experience for vulnerable residents in care homes.

Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber funded the evaluation of a 12-month pilot which showed that community-based X-ray services can reduce costs by around £1,600 per patient compared with hospital-based imaging, mainly through reduced admissions.

Patients receiving community X-ray had a hospital admission rate of 11.36 per cent, compared with 76.39 per cent under standard care.

The independent evaluation was carried out by the York Health Economics Consortium and the pilot was led by a collaboration of The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust’s Hospital at Home Team; Radiography Department; and Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

How it works

The Rotherham’s Hospital at Home Team assesses 999 calls to determine those appropriate to have a visit rather than an ambulance conveyance to A&E.

When the Hospital at Home Team visit a patient in a care home and find that an X-ray is needed, they call in Rotherham’s new community X-ray service.

Six radiographers have been trained in using new, portable Fujifilm X‑ray equipment and each day, two are assigned to delivering the service to care homes, when requested.

On average, this is happening at least once a day, with seven to nine calls happening per week during May 2026.

Katie Martin, The Rotherham’s Clinical Lead for Plain Film, said: “It is amazing how well this is going for everyone involved. We get overwhelmingly positive feedback from care home staff, residents and their families and our staff love it as they are making a huge difference to patients.

“A lot of the patients have dementia and a hospital is a strange environment where they may have to wait a long time. This causes a lot of stress and it can be difficult to help them get into the right position and stay still. Often they curl up and are distressed.

“When we see them in their own care home it is so different, they are happy staying in their own environment, it only takes a few minutes and because they are relaxed it’s much easier to encourage them to move into the right position and then stay still.”

How it started

The idea of delivering X-ray services in the community was highlighted by The Rotherham’s Hospital at Home team at the same time as Yorkshire Ambulance Service was exploring options including outsourcing.

The Radiology teams, including Katie Martin, saw an equipment demonstration at the UK Imaging and Oncology (UKIO) Congress and suggested that this would be a better alternative, run inhouse by the X-ray department.

The portable X-ray equipment was bought by The Rotherham; the Hospital at Home team and Radiology Department came up with an internal process of referring suitable patients seen in care homes; training was provided and radiology staff rotas were changed to include the community service.

Katie Martin said: “There had been a trial in Northumbria and then Cornwall picked up the idea and ran with it. The Cornwall team were very helpful, providing information about pathway changes and supporting us along the way.

“But our service has now evolved and is very different from theirs, with different pathways.

“This has been an opportunity I never thought I would see in my career. We are providing the best service we can offer for patients, we’re getting out to see them in their homes and giving them the best care which is what we want as nurses and radiographers.”

What next

The evaluation funded by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber is part of a business case to provide more investment into the community X-ray service.

If funding is provided, the service has the potential to be extended for use in patients’ homes, working directly with Yorkshire Ambulance Service – and expanding further across the region.

However the economic benefits are seen in different stages of the patient pathway – beyond the radiology service.

“It takes one hour and ten minutes on average, to travel and deliver an X-ray in a care home. It takes five minutes to do it in our radiology department – so our department provides the resource but the benefits are with the wider trust and the ambulance service,” explained Katie.

“The evaluation funded by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber is an important part of our business case for further investment. It highlights significant potential cost savings for NHS services and clearly demonstrates the impact that effective collaboration can achieve. Most importantly, it shows the substantial benefits for patient care in the community.”