~10%
reduction in CTPAs at early adopter sites
£128k
avoided costs per year
0
adverse safety events throughout
Why now?
The RCR’s 2025 Clinical Radiology Census shows 38% of radiology departments operating under recruitment freezes — double the figure from last year. The NHS spent £362 million on outsourcing, insourcing and locums in 2024/25. Demand for complex imaging is growing at more than twice the rate of the workforce.
Hiring alone will not close that gap. Understanding whether CTPA demand is producing the right diagnostic yield — and where the pathway can be improved — is part of the answer. That is what the CTPA audit, now included in NHSBN acute membership, helps trusts to do.
How the audit works
1
Built from reports you already produce
AI analysis of your full dataset
2
Clinically validated, clinically owned
4
Actionable findings, benchmarked against national standards
3
The audit uses the free-text radiology reports your Trust already generates. Additional Pathology data for D-Dimer values will enhance and support the audit findings. Beyond a data extract and a short pathway survey, no additional clinical input is required until the report is generated.
A validated large language model pipeline reads and classifies every report — typically 10,000–20,000 — in under an hour, versus the 4–8 weeks of clinical time equivalent manual audit would take. Demand, diagnostic yield and pathway compliance are analysed at a scale manual audit cannot reach.
The pipeline is validated against an independent multi-clinician reference standard, achieving 100% sensitivity for pulmonary embolism detection. The audit is a retrospective service evaluation, through which the findings inform pathway optimisation discussions, and all decisions remain with your clinical teams.
Your site report benchmarks diagnostic yield against RCR-recommended ranges, quantifies the financial and reporting-capacity opportunity, and sets out specific, prioritised recommendations on vetting, referral criteria and pathway design — presented directly to your clinical and operational teams.
What’s included in NHSBN acute membership?
The CTPA audit sits alongside our full acute benchmarking programme, giving your trust access to peer comparison, data tools and a national shared learning network.
CTPA pathway audit
AI-driven analysis of your full CTPA dataset, with clinical validation and a tailored findings report.
Robust benchmarking
Compare performance across ED, virtual wards, pharmacy, frailty and more against peer organisations nationally.
Online data explorers
Interactive dashboards giving you real-time access to your data and national peer comparisons.
Shared learning events
National webinars, workshops and networking events connecting improvement leads across member trusts.
Member reports
Tailored annual reports showing your position against the national sample across all datasets.
30+ years of NHS insight
Credible, independent benchmarking trusted by the majority of acute trusts in England since 1994.
What early adopter sites found
“Working through our full CTPA dataset gave us insight into referral practice and pathway compliance that simply wasn’t visible through our existing audit processes. The findings gave us a clear and clinically defensible basis for change.”
Clinical Director of Radiology — early adopter trust
Results from Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and University Hospitals of North Midlands, achieved using the approach that now underpins the CLEAR audit. Based on analysis of over 35,000 radiology reports. Verified outcomes with no adverse safety events throughout.
Data security and clinical safety.
The audit is completed in a secure environment with defined data specifications and minimum necessary principles. Information governance requirements are agreed and supported during onboarding. A full audit trail of ingestion and processing steps is maintained throughout.
Find out more
Download our CTPA audit case study, or speak to a member of our team about how NHSBN membership could benefit your trust.
FREE DOWNLOAD
CTPA Pathway Audit: Case Study
Read how the approach underpinning the CLEAR audit helped two NHS trusts safely reduce CTPA demand, avoid £128k in annual costs and improve diagnostic pathway compliance.
Case study
AI-driven CTPA pathway audit: outcomes and learning from early adopter sites
NHS Benchmarking Network & CLEAR 2026
Covers audit methodology, results from Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and University Hospitals of North Midlands, clinical governance approach and pathway improvement actions taken.