To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase workforce capacity in (1) cancer care, and (2) radiotherapy treatment services.
Answered on
10 February 2025
The Government recognises that a cancer-specific approach is needed to meet the challenges in cancer care, and to improve outcomes for people living with cancer. Following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a new national cancer plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients. We will continue to ensure that we train the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it, and the cancer plan will reflect this.
We will continue to recruit radiographers and radiologists. We continue to recruit priority medical specialties including clinical oncologists, medical oncologists, and clinical radiologists. We are also supporting employers to train new radiographers through the apprenticeship pathway, ensuring that imaging training academies can increase training capacity in addition to reforming training to support rapid development for both radiologists and radiographers. These actions will help to improve outcomes for radiotherapy patients.
This summer, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again. We will set out next steps in due course.