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Written Question
Radiology: Training
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase central funding for clinical radiology trainee posts.

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

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out an aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32. The plan commits to ensuring a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future.

On 10 January 2023, Health Education England, now NHS England, announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for that year, including 100 clinical radiology posts, building on an increase of 110 clinical radiology specialty training posts in 2022.

We are set to complete the planned increase in medical specialty training places by September 2024 to more than 2,000 over three years, as well as 1,000 additional specialty training places focusing on areas with the greatest shortages. This expansion is both supporting existing planned growth for mental health, cancer and diagnostic services, as well as elective recovery, urgent and acute care, maternity services and public health medicine.

The Department’s budgets for 2024/25, including for radiology trainee posts, will be confirmed in due course.


Written Question
Radiology: Telemedicine
Friday 16th February 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of outsourcing radiology scans to external teleradiology companies in each of the last five years.

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

From the years 2018/19 to 2022/23, the National Health Service spent £1,096,083,822 on outsourcing radiology scans. Over this five-year period, 18 million outsourced radiology scans were provided, representing 7.9% of the total cost of all imaging services during this time.

The outsourcing of teleradiology scans by the NHS is used to help deliver targets on diagnostic waiting times and activity, including the diagnosis of illnesses such as cancer. Outsourcing allows the NHS to maintain important diagnostic activity whilst the Government continues to invest into building up diagnostic capacity, including through an increased number of community diagnostic centres. The following table shows the cost of outsourcing radiology scans to external teleradiology companies each year from 2018/19 to 2022/23 and in total, as well as the number of activities outsourced:

Financial year

Total Cost of Outsourcing

Total Activity Outsourced

2022-23

£368,858,838

3,742,396

2021-22

£241,015,574

3,465,108

2020-21

£170,131,115

2,498,008

2019-20

£192,261,028

4,531,398

2018-19

£123,817,267

3,940,574

Total

£1,096,083,822

18,177,484


Written Question
Radiology: Telemedicine
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of outsourcing radiology scans to external teleradiology companies in each of the last five years.

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

In the years 2018-2019 to 2022-23, the NHS spent £1,096,083,822 on outsourcing of radiology scans. This represents 7.9% of the total cost of all imaging services across the 5 year period.

Outsourcing of teleradiology scans by the NHS is being used to help deliver NHS targets on diagnostic waiting times and activity, including diagnosis of illnesses such as cancer. Outsourcing allows the NHS to maintain important diagnostic activity whilst the government’s investments to build up diagnostic capacity, including through an increased number of Community Diagnostic Centres, continue to progress.

Table 1: Total Cost of Outsourcing Radiology Scans to External Teleradiology Companies from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Financial year

Total Cost of Outsourcing

2022-23

£368,858,838

2021-22

£241,015,574

2020-21

£170,131,115

2019-20

£192,261,028

2018-19

£123,817,267

Total

£1,096,083,822


Written Question
Radiology: Staff
Monday 27th November 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the number of clinical radiology staff trainee places on the demand for clinical diagnostic services in the last 12 months.

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

There are 75 more doctors in clinical radiology specialty training programmes in 2023 compared to 2022. The following table sets out the number of doctors the General Medical Council (GMC) have recorded as being on clinical radiology specialty training programmes in England from 2012 to 2023, showing a year-on-year increase:

Year

Number of doctors

2023

1562

2022

1487

2021

1359

2020

1289

2019

1223

2018

1158

2017

1129

2016

1080

2015

1019

2014

1037

2013

1022

2012

981

Source: GMC National Trainee Survey data. Accessed via GMC Data Explorer, Postgraduate data, available at the following link: data.gmc-uk.org/gmcdata/home/#/reports/Postgraduate training/Stats/report.

Successful completion of the clinical radiology training programme allows doctors to join the GMC specialist register.

In addition to this, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) sets out how we will meet the workforce challenges of the future through increasing recruitment, including doubling medical school training places and increasing allied health professional training places by a quarter by 2031/32. The LTWP also sets a path to ensure up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the National Health Service by improving culture, leadership, and wellbeing. In addition to retention measures, we will reform and modernise the way staff work, harness new technology and increase productivity to ensure staff can spend more time with patients. This will apply to all NHS staff groups, including radiologists.


Written Question
Radiology: Greater London
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)

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.


Written Question
Radiology: Telemedicine
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of radiology scans were outsourced to teleradiology companies based overseas in each of the last five years.

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

The data requested is not held centrally, and there are no current plans to publish a list of the teleradiology companies based overseas that NHS radiology scans have been outsourced to.


Written Question
Radiology: Telemedicine
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish a list of the teleradiology companies based overseas that NHS radiology scans have been outsourced to in each of the last five years.

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

The data requested is not held centrally, and there are no current plans to publish a list of the teleradiology companies based overseas that NHS radiology scans have been outsourced to.


Written Question
Radiology: Staff
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiology appointments were delayed due to staff shortages in each of the last 12 months.

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

The data is not held in the format requested. However, there are record numbers of people working in the National Health Service overall and the NHS has recently published a Long Term Workforce Plan which sets out long term workforce projections. As of September 2023, there are currently almost 17,800 full-time equivalent diagnostic radiographers working in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 1,300 or 8.1% more than in 2022 and over 2,600 or 17.4% more than in 2019.

The NHS is prioritising patient safety and will continue to do its best to maintain appointments and elective procedures wherever possible. Cancelled appointments that need to be rescheduled will be done so as a priority.


Written Question
Radiology: Staff
Monday 29th January 2024

Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase the number of radiologists in cancer centres.

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

As of October 2023, there are currently over 5,600 full time equivalent doctors working in the speciality of clinical radiology, within National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 300 or 5.7% more than in 2023, over 1,000 or 22% more than in 2019, and over 2,200 or 66.8% more than in 2010.

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 has committed to an adequate growth in foundation placement capacity, as those taking up these new places begin to graduate, and to a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the NHS in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for the radiologist workforce.


Written Question
Radiology: Telemedicine
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of outsourcing radiology scans to external teleradiology companies in each of the last five years.

Answered by Will Quince

It has not proved possible to reply to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.