As patients we are copied into radiology reports, but they are addressed to doctors and in doctor-speak. So it’s not easy to interpret them, of course.
But… I’ve been quite alarmed by the quality of some radiology reports - which I notice were contracted out to the private sector. In the most recent case I’ve actually spoken to my neurologist who rather confirmed my suspicions that the report was cursory, inaccurate and misleading.
Private sector companies seem to pay individual neurologists “per report” - so the quicker they get through the stack, the more they get paid.
What do you think about the quality of your reports? Do you ever query them?
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I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one. Generally it’s a brief letter from the neurologist to that trickles through the system at some point. Maybe I need to take a more intelligent interest, but if I saw the radiologist’s doctor-to-doctor technical speak I wouldn’t expect to understand much of that. Good question, though, and worth thinking about.
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I’ve never been sent a radiologists report. My consultant usually tells me about it or, I get some of the information in a letter from him. He tends to leave out all the doctor speak in those 
One of his colleagues did once show me an MRI image of my brain demyelination when he did one of my meetings.
Jon.
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I’m slightly puzzled by what you say. My understanding is that, for MRI scans done under the NHS, it is the NHS radiologist who writes the report and compares to previous scans. Are you talking about NHS MRI scans and reports? Why would a private company be paying individual neurologists?
I’ve never received a radiologist report
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Yes - MRI scans and reports.
You go for an MRI scan. That scan is reported on by a (neuro)radiologist before it is sent to your NHS neurologist. But the NHS can contract out the MRI and/or radiology report to private companies, for example, because of a shortage of radiologists. In my case, both my last MRI itself and the report were contracted out. The companies that do this in turn can employ freelance radiologists from anywhere in the world, as far as I can tell - they seem to be paid by the report.
I’ve always received copies of MRI scan reports done by the radiologist - these days it happens through the hospitals “Mycare” portal. The report has the name of the radiologist and the company they work for.
As I understand it that they can only use radiologists who are licensed to practice medicine in the UK.
I’ve just looked it up and I’m wrong. The strong recommendation is that overseas folks reading UK scans should be so licensed, but they don’t have to be. 
Yes. What really alarms me is the pay-by-report model and the cursory nature of some of what I’ve seen. The impression you get is that the radiologist is rushing through a stack of scans to knock off as many as possible.
I just wonder how much oversight there really is.
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