NHS Workforce Levels: Impact on Cancer Patients

Karin Smyth Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for securing the debate, and for getting through it—I hope he is well. I thank other hon. Members for their contributions. As others have noted, I am aware of the work that the hon. Gentleman has done, using his experience for good, on access to primary care, radiotherapy and cancer. He has campaigned on behalf of his constituents in Wokingham and people across the country, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said. He has been a keen advocate for the NHS workforce’s importance to delivering the health services we need.

I thank the wife of my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for her service and wish her well in her new role at the hospice. It is really good to have a voice from Scotland in these debates. My hon. Friend spoke about the shocking and deeply concerning waiting times that our friends and families in Scotland are experiencing. The Scottish people will have a chance to start reversing the situation next May. I hope they take that opportunity, and I look forward to joining my hon. Friend to try to make that happen.

I have my green jacket on, but I am sorry that I could not join today’s Macmillan coffee morning, which the hon. Member for Strangford mentioned. The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), is working very closely with Macmillan and many other cancer charities as she develops the cancer plan. She is in good contact with them; they do great work, and we will ensure that we continue to talk through their many asks of the Government as she develops the workforce plan.

As many hon. Members said, half of us will have a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime. The health team has certainly taken our full part in that, as 50% of us have had a cancer diagnosis. Some of us are still undergoing treatment. Although more than three quarters of all people diagnosed with cancer in the UK are 60 and over—as hon. Members said, the population is ageing—I decided to get mine at 59. My hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire is also younger than 60, and the Secretary of State would not forgive me for not reminding everybody that he is only in his early 40s. We make the point well: as other Members said, that although incidence will increase as a result of our ageing population, cancer can strike anybody at any age.

Diagnosing and treating cancer is a growing part of NHS elective activity, and responding to demand in a way that best suits patients is crucial. That includes the issues that the hon. Members for Wokingham and for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) raised about the variability we often see even in a small geographical patch, and certainly between different cancers. The hon. Member for Wokingham talked about clinical nurse specialists. Mine were absolutely fantastic, and I did know who they were. The statistics he outlined are deeply concerning, so those points were very well made. Our mission to tackle cancer and the other biggest killers is underpinned by the 10-year health plan published earlier this year, focusing on those three shifts: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.

On the workforce plan, we know that we need an effective and sustainable workforce to deliver better outcomes for everyone, including those with cancer. In the 10-year health plan, we set out that, to deliver a workforce fit for the future, we need a new, sustainable approach to workforce planning. Our 10-year workforce plan will be different. It will set out how we will create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service for patients when and where they need it, with more empowered, flexible and fulfilled staff.

Since we launched our call for evidence on 26 September, we have been struck by the huge enthusiasm of staff, the sector, stakeholders and colleagues in sharing their thoughts and ideas with us. Many have said that they would like more time to have those conversations, to test ideas and to work together to deliver a truly reformed service. I am grateful to them for raising that, and it is why we have made the decision to give more time to that process. We will now publish the plan in the spring of 2026. A spring publication will allow us to have more detailed discussions with partners, hon. Members and other stakeholders, not just to listen but to work in a truly joined-up way to deliver for staff and patients.

The shadow Minister helpfully outlined all the decisions that were made by her Government over the last few years—decisions that essentially led to many of the workforce problems we now have. We are trying to resolve those problems, and we will. She informed the House that the resident doctors committee has now decided to go on strike again, which is, of course, deeply disappointing. It will be damaging for the work we want to do, and we urge it not to go ahead. However, we will continue to commit to ensuring that the workforce is fit for purpose, including to diagnose and treat cancer. We will progress with the work that we have already started.

In July 2025, there were over 5% more staff in the key cancer professions of clinical oncology, gastroenterology, medical oncology, histopathology, clinical radiology and diagnostic and therapeutic radiography than in July 2024. There were also more doctors working in clinical oncology and more radiology doctors, compared with last year.

My hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West asked particularly about haematology. NHS England has invested in expanding specialty training posts in high-demand disciplines, including haematology, and is supporting local systems to retain and develop multidisciplinary teams. That includes increased medical training posts in haematology, and enhancing the scientific workforce supply through other initiatives.

We have also ensured that the cancer-facing workforce are put on a more stable footing to ensure they have the stability they need to continue to provide the care that patients need. In 2025, we provided grant funding to the Royal College of Radiologists to encourage foundation and internal medicine trainees to specialise in clinical oncology. That work is currently under way and involves a series of webinars as well as targeted engagement. In 2024-25, around 8,000 people received training either to enter the cancer and diagnostic workforce or to develop in their roles. As part of that, more than 1,600 people were on apprenticeship courses, with more than 270 additional medical specialty training places funded. More than 1,000 clinical nurse specialist grants were made available to new and aspiring CNS workers, and it is a really valuable service.

[Tom Gordon]

I thank the Minister for giving way. As ever, she is most generous with her time. She has outlined the positive steps that the Government are taking to address the workforce challenge. Could she elaborate on the points I made about the inequalities between the north and the south in the NHS and the cancer workforce?

[Karin Smyth]

I do not have those numbers to hand but, as we outlined in the 10-year health plan, we are particularly committed to people in rural and coastal communities with regard to workforce and access to many other services. If there is anything specific the hon. Gentleman is not aware of, I am happy to furnish him with more information. We are, however, minded to rectify the variability across the country, even within towns and cities, let alone rural and coastal communities, whether that be in the north, south, east or west.

We will ensure that ongoing investment in practice education continues to enhance clinical supervision, education and training across cancer and diagnostic workforces. That will increase placement capacity, support staff retention and contribute to high-quality patient care.

We will not only ensure that the cancer workforce have the numbers to succeed, but also the skillset. Training academies in imaging, endoscopy and genomics are all being delivered across regions to provide intensive skills development and to support new models of care. We will also ensure that staff have the skills to adopt the treatments needed by cancer patients. Adoption of innovative cancer treatments is often clinician-led and self-identified, with doctors seeking out specialist training opportunities themselves. This may include overseas fellowships or short courses, after which skills are cascaded locally through continued professional development, multidisciplinary teams and peer-to-peer learning.

The complex challenge of tackling the cancer and workforce issues we face will not be solved with a single solution, which is why the Department will be publishing a national cancer plan in the new year. The plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention, research and innovation. The national cancer plan will build on the progress of the 10-year health plan to improve survival rates and reduce the number of lives lost to the biggest killers.

On 4 February, we launched a call for evidence on the national cancer plan, which closed on 29 April. We received over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals and organisations who shared their views on how we can do more to achieve our ambition. We have worked with crucial industry figures in the development of the national cancer plan, including the Royal College of Radiologists. The submissions are being used to inform our plan to improve cancer care. As I said, the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire, is working hard on that issue.

I thank the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for her recognition of the improvements being made at Shrewsbury and Telford and for her contribution, and that of other local MPs, in supporting that trust. Those are very welcome improvements.

On research, the life sciences sector is critical to this Government’s growth mission and we want to make this country the best place to do life sciences. Of course, the Department is working closely with colleagues in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Department for Business and Trade, and His Majesty’s Treasury to make that happen.

Finally, through this Government’s action on workforce and cancer capacity, we will ensure the NHS has the staff it needs to treat cancer patients safely across the country. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham for securing this debate.