"This is good for patients, good for doctors and good for the taxpayer," says Erika Denton, a consultant radiologist at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and medical director of the NHS programme that has seen digital X-rays and scans replace old-fashioned film.

Pacs, as the digital system is known, rings all the bells for an efficiency programme that essentially divides the savings into two. First there are "cashable" savings - those that release money that can be spent elsewhere. Then there are the "non-cashable" - those that increase the productive time of doctors, teachers or the police or provide the public with a more efficient service for the same or a lower cost.