Cancer: Health Services

(asked on 29th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Radiologists’ 2022 Workforce Census, what assessment he has of the adequacy of the size of the NHS clinical oncology workforce.


Answered by
Andrew Stephenson Portrait
Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 5th December 2023

In June 2023, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver a workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years.

The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion funding over the next five years to ensure additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years.

We are taking steps to build our cancer workforce. As of August 2023, there are currently over 1,600 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the speciality of clinical oncology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 70 or 4.9% more than last year, almost 300 or 22.1% more than 2019, and almost 630 or 61.9% more than in 2010.

This includes 880 FTE consultants. This is 34 or 4.0% more than last year, almost 130 or 17.1% more than in 2019, and over 390 or 80.6% more than in 2010.

Reticulating Splines