To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional investment his Department is putting into (a) radiotherapy machines and (b) IT infrastructure and software to provide additional capacity in response to the cancer backlog following the covid-19 outbreak.
This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.
Answered on
30 June 2021
Health Education England (HEE) is continuing to take forward the cancer priorities identified in the NHS Long Term Plan and People Plan, including the training of 450 reporting radiographers.
Cancer patients will continue to be prioritised within the National Health Service and will benefit from approximately £1 billion from the Spending Review to tackle the elective backlog.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have also offered radiotherapy providers the opportunity of participating in a centrally funded three-year evaluation programme of a cloud-based information technology solution called ProKnow. This system will enable clinicians to collaborate virtually within and across services to plan treatments, undertake peer review processes and participate in large-scale audit and quality improvement processes. The Spending Review also made £32 million available to support the replacement of radiotherapy equipment in 2021-22 and work has already begun with trusts to identify need and allocate funds.