Executive Summary
We brought together patients, care providers, support group leaders and service managers to better understand a phenomenon that many of us have sensed for some time but rarely examined directly: scanxiety. Scanxiety is the anxiety associated with diagnostic imaging; the waiting before the scan, feelings during the scan, and most acutely, the period while waiting for results. It is not confined to patients. It extends to families, to friends, and, as we heard clearly during our discussion, to care providers working in a system that is stretched beyond the limits it was designed for.
For some patients, life becomes “one scan to the next. ”One patient described having 20 scans in just over two years, a rhythm of care that leaves little room for psychological recovery. Another spoke of waiting three weeks for CT or MRI results, even though her PET results came back in a week. One admitted she did not tell her husband when she was waiting for results, carrying the burden alone to spare his emotional energy. Many described the same visceral experience: “We dread the phone ringing.”
Scanxiety exists not simply because people fear bad news. It exists because there is a large and often invisible “anxiety window” within the system. This is the period between referral, scan, reporting, multidisciplinary team (MDT) review and communication. Each handover creates uncertainty. Each delay lengthens that uncertainty. And inconsistency in communication amplifies it further. Technology means that communication is technically easier than ever. Results can be uploaded instantly to apps. Images are available across systems. But without context, without timing clarity, and without support, faster communication can paradoxically create more distress.
The NHS is operating under extraordinary pressure. Radiology teams are working tirelessly to report scans at speed, manage backlogs, and support urgent care. The conversation did not seek to attribute blame. Instead, it recognised that scanxiety is a structural symptom of a system not yet optimised for the scale and expectations of modern diagnostic care.
Read the full paper HERE
