UK nuclear medicine is close to collapse, experts warn

Many cancer patients in the United Kingdom are getting a substandard service because of a shortage of modern scanners and appropriately trained doctors, say specialists.

Nuclear medicine services are close to collapse, they warn. Unless more doctors train in the specialty, they say, already fragmented services for mainly cancer and cardiac patients will get worse.

With just four full positron emission tomography (PET) scanning facilities, the United Kingdom lags behind the United States and most of Europe in its provision of nuclear medicine, says the Intercollegiate Standing Committee on Nuclear Medicine.

The scanners, …