Found: to support and treat patients, so we have seen more doctors working in clinical oncology and more radiology

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many 24-hr interventional radiology services are available in the North Central London area; and at what locations are those services.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Twenty-four-hour interventional radiology services are available on site in two hospitals in the North Central London area, namely the Royal Free Hospital and University College London Hospital. There are agreed referral pathways in place between providers across North Central London to access these services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will undertake an audit of NHS equipment used in radiotherapy treatments.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. Consequently, the Department has no plans to audit National Health Service equipment used in radiotherapy treatments.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to train specialist staff in the timely (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of cancer.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England on 30 June 2023 sets out an aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year, by 2028/29.

The LTWP commits to an adequate growth in foundation placement capacity, as those taking up these new places begin to graduate, and a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for the cancer workforce. The Department is working closely with NHS England to make sure we have the right workforce with the right skills up and down the country.

There are more doctors working in clinical oncology and more radiology doctors. As of October 2023, there are almost 1,700 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working on clinical oncology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is 5.2% more than last year, and 62.4% more than in 2010. Additionally, there are over 5,600 FTE doctors working in the speciality of clinical radiology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 300 5.7% more than last year, and 66.8% more than in 2010.

In 2023/24, NHS England is investing an additional £50 million to expand cancer and diagnostics specialists. On 10 January 2023, Health Education England announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year, including more than 500 in the key areas of mental health and cancer treatment.

Found: shortages of medics in certain specialities (such as orthopaedics, geriatrics, cardiothoracic oncology and radiology

Found: of medics in certain specialities (such as orthopaedics, geriatrics, cardiothoracic oncology, and radiology

Found: Ophthalmology Orthopaedics Paediatrics Pathology Pharmacy Physiotherapy & occupational therapy Radiology

Found: detailed information about diagnostic imaging tests carried out on NHS patients, extracted from local Radiology

Found: of the essential infrastructure and standardisation for testing AI as a medical device products in radiology

Found: ▪MRI, CT, radiology, and x -rays investigations.

Found: For certain consultant posts (Radiology, Geriatrics, Psychiatry), and in certain parts of Scotland,

Found: an improved productivity opportunity.Consideration has been being given to how to reduce backlogs in radiology

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the total number of radiology training places has been in financial year (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, (c) 2021-22, (d) 2022-23 and (e) 2023-24.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

The number of medical training places is calculated by the training year they are advertised/filled rather than by financial year. Most posts start in August to September of each year, with a smaller number from a subsequent recruitment round starting in February. The figures quoted in the following table are specific to training years, with data for 2024 not yet available.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS boards currently use the system, TrakCare; in which clinical services they use the system, and how many staff are employed to maintain the system.

Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care

TrakCare is used as the main patient management system by 13 Health Boards:

• NHS Ayrshire and Arran;
• NHS Borders;
• NHS Fife;
• NHS Forth Valley;
• NHS Great Glasgow and Clyde;
• NHS Grampian;
• Golden Jubilee National Hospital;
• NHS Highland;
• NHS Lanarkshire;
• NHS Lothian;
• NHS Orkney;
• NHS Shetland; and
• NHS Tayside.

All 13 Health Boards use TrakCare for waiting lists, Outpatients and inpatients, clinical coding, national Scottish Morbidity Records and new ways returns. Various Boards also use TrakCare for Emergency Departments, maternity services, mental health, community services, radiology, and theatres.

In addition, the system supports order request functionality for the service departments to manage the provision of laboratory, X-ray and diagnostic services; and Allied Health Professionals, observations, and clinical data recoding in clinical forms to varying degrees.

The Scottish Government does not collate or hold information on how many staff the Health Boards employ to maintain TrakCare.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what recent steps have been taken to improve diagnosis times for those affected by brain tumours.

Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health

The Scottish Government published our ten year Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 along with an initial three year Cancer Action Plan ( Cancer Plan for Scotland 2023 – 2026 ) in June 2023.

Over the next 10 years, our strategic aim is to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care. The Strategy and Plan take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care. We continue to place an emphasis on the less survivable cancers, including brain cancer, and improving their outcomes.

As part of this strategy, we developed a new Earlier Cancer Diagnosis Vision.

The vision includes continuing to deliver our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme, working with primary care clinicians to ensure they have direct access to diagnostic tests and quality education sources, as well as developing public campaigns to educate and empower those with possible symptoms of cancer to act early.

In addition to this work and in order to support radiology diagnostic capacity, we have funded mobile scanners to provide additional capacity for MRI and CT supporting cancer patients across NHS Scotland.