18 June, 2026
Before the Scan: How Collaboration During Referral Supports Earlier Intervention
Author, Rebecca Pennington
Rebecca Pennington is the Business Development Manager for the South West at Vista Health. Alongside her commerical role, she is also an HCPC–registered radiographer with expertise in cross-sectional radiography and neuroradiography. She has experience working across both the NHS and the private imaging sector.
Before the Scan: How Collaboration During Referral Supports Earlier Intervention
Over 48 million diagnostic imaging tests were carried out on the NHS in 2024 alone. Despite this, long NHS waiting lists mean patients are increasingly turning to private diagnostic imaging to speed up their journey towards treatment.
This has led to rapid growth in the medical imaging sector, but more importantly, it has led to faster clinical decision-making and earlier diagnoses for patients.
Empowering patients to access the scans they need through the private sector — and consequently helping alleviate the bottleneck of diagnostic imaging on the NHS — relies on collaboration. Specifically, collaboration between referrers and imaging providers. Here, we will explore why this is so important and how Vista Health can help.
The Importance of Referrer Engagement
As patients gain greater awareness of the accessibility and affordability of private scans, they are increasingly turning to their GPs or allied healthcare professionals, such as physiotherapists, for private referrals. The quality of these referrals is crucial for speedy access to private scans.
However, completing a referral can become more challenging when patients present with complex medical histories.
The absence of key clinical information can result in a referral being delayed or declined, while the inclusion of unnecessary clinical information uses up precious time referrers could spend on other tasks. This is where engagement between referrers and imaging providers is crucial.
When referrers are provided with clear guidance, a robust referral portal and open channels of communication with imaging providers, referrals are more likely to meet requirements at first pass. Should questions remain, they can be quickly answered, avoiding delay to patients who may already feel anxious.
The result: timely and appropriate referrals that speed up the patient journey.
How Vista Health Supports Referrers
As a leading imaging provider, we strive to improve referral confidence so you can help your patients gain rapid access to diagnostic scans and reach the right specialist sooner to receive treatment at the earliest opportunity.
We make this possible in 4 key ways:
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An Intuitive, Failsafe Referral Portal
Our online referral portal is simple to use and takes you through each stage of the referral process. What’s more, you cannot submit your referral until each section is complete, ensuring no step is missed.
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A Single Point of Contact for Queries
Every referrer has a designated account manager, who acts as your single point of contact for all of your queries.
If you need advice about the scan you are requesting or are unclear about which clinical information you need to include, your account manager is on hand via email and telephone to provide the answers. This ensures your referral is completed and approved as quickly as possible.
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A Clear Referral Process
Referral for a scan at Vista Health follows a simple, clear process. First, you complete the online referral form via our portal. Next, our dedicated Patient Engagement Centre ensures a seamless patient experience, managing referrals, conducting triage and safety checks, and arranging appointments at a time and location that suits them.
Every referral is assessed by our triage team with the support of our expert Consultant Radiologists when required or for specialist requests.
If more information is needed to approve your referral, a member of the team will contact you to source the information. Our triage team then re-checks your referral, and once approved, our bookings team contacts your patient.
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CPD and Engagement Events
At our CPD events, we aim to help clinicians enhance their knowledge, make confident imaging and referral decisions, and keep updated with developments in clinical practice and diagnostic imaging technology.
Meanwhile, at our coffee mornings and engagement events, we take the time to find out about the challenges you are facing with diagnostic imaging for your patients. These events are also opportunities for us to learn how we can improve our systems to make referrals easier for you.
Supporting You to Support Your Patients
Discover more about our referrer engagement and education initiatives so you can create more confident, timely imaging referrals when you become a Vista Health partner.