Outsourcing X-ray results

Results of X-rays sent electronically to India from Singapore will come back within 30 minutes under an outsourcing agreement.

Results of X-rays sent electronically to India from Singapore will come back within 30 minutes under an outsourcing agreement that saves costs and benefits patients, doctors said on Monday.

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Under the National Healthcare Group's (NHG's) agreement with India's Teleradiology Solutions, a polyclinic has been sending about 700 X-rays a month to Bangalore.

Trained radiologists analyse each one, make diagnoses and send them back, reported the Straits Times.

By April, the Indian doctors will take over the reading of X-rays from two or three more NHG polyclinics and eventually from all of them.

The biggest beneficiaries are the patients, who can now get their X-ray results the same day. At other polyclinics, they need to wait two weeks.

"This move saves the patient a trip, a second consultation fee and a day's productivity at work," a health ministry spokesman was quoted as saying.

The public medical sector carries out more than one million X-rays a year. Experts say the more sophisticated CT scan, ultrasound and MRI images may also find their way to India.

Doctors at the Ang Mo Kio polyclinic said it is cheaper having the X-ray read in Bangalore than by radiologists in Singapore, and the reports from India are more detailed.

"The Indian reports are quite detailed," sai Winnie Soon, a senior family physician. "This is very helpful to patients who want to know more."

Teleradiology Solutions also service nearly 50 hospital and clinic chains in the United States.