Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the impact of the shortfall in clinical radiology consultants in the South East region on (a) diagnostic waiting times, (b) patient outcomes and (c) staff wellbeing in the region.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the South East region, local systems are taking steps to address diagnostic waiting times, patient outcomes and staff wellbeing in the area. These include initiatives such as upskilling other staff such as radiographers to undertake advanced practice; investing over £40 million in digital infrastructure while working with industry partners around artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions; rolling out the i-refer system to support general practitioners (GPs) to appropriately refer for imaging tests; creating imaging networks to enable departments to provide mutual support and aid across the region.
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years including increasing the number of Community Diagnostic Centres up to 160 by March 2025. This investment will support the ambition for 75% of patients with an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024. This is in line with to NHS Long Term Plan ambitions on early diagnosis and improving patient outcomes.
The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is taken seriously, and NHS England have put in place a wide ranging package of support for NHS staff. This includes emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is to minimise the potential impact of the shortfall of clinical oncology consultants on (a) diagnostic waiting times, (b) patient outcomes and (c) staff wellbeing.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the South East region, local systems are taking steps to address diagnostic waiting times, patient outcomes and staff wellbeing in the area. These include initiatives such as upskilling other staff such as radiographers to undertake advanced practice; investing over £40 million in digital infrastructure while working with industry partners around artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions; rolling out the i-refer system to support general practitioners (GPs) to appropriately refer for imaging tests; creating imaging networks to enable departments to provide mutual support and aid across the region.
£2.3 billion was awarded at Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years including increasing the number of Community Diagnostic Centres up to 160 by March 2025. This investment will support the ambition for 75% of patients with an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024. This is in line with to NHS Long Term Plan ambitions on early diagnosis and improving patient outcomes.
The health and wellbeing of National Health Service staff is taken seriously, and NHS England have put in place a wide ranging package of support for NHS staff. This includes emotional and psychological health and wellbeing support.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase the number of NHS staff providing rheumatology care in the (a) Buckinghamshire, (b) Oxfordshire and (c) West Berkshire Integrated Care Board area and (d) England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. Rheumatology services are generally commissioned locally by integrated care boards which have a statutory responsibility to commission healthcare services that meet the needs of their whole population.
The Government has committed to publishing the Long-Term Workforce Plan shortly. This will include projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed. The plan will provide estimates of NHS workforce as a whole; however, it will not go into detail about condition-specific workforce, such as for rheumatology. The recruitment of staff for multi-disciplinary rheumatology teams is for local determination.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the provision of rheumatology care in Buckinghamshire in the last (a) 12 and (b) 24 months.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. Rheumatology services are generally commissioned locally by integrated care boards which have a statutory responsibility to commission healthcare services that meet the needs of their whole population.
The Government has committed to publishing the Long-Term Workforce Plan shortly. This will include projections for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed. The plan will provide estimates of NHS workforce as a whole; however, it will not go into detail about condition-specific workforce, such as for rheumatology. The recruitment of staff for multi-disciplinary rheumatology teams is for local determination.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) Allied Health Professionals entering specialist rheumatology training.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 May 2023 to Question 185980.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to fill vacancies in clinical radiology as part of the long-term workforce plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2023/24, NHS England is continuing to invest £50 million in the priorities set out in the Cancer Workforce Plan, including additional medical training places for clinical or medical oncology, radiology, histopathology, and gastroenterology.
The Government has also committed to publishing the Long Term Workforce Plan shortly. The Long Term Workforce Plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to increase the number of clinical oncology and clinical radiology specialists in training after the publication of the long-term workforce plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2023/24, NHS England is continuing to invest £50 million in the priorities set out in the Cancer Workforce Plan, including additional medical training places for clinical/medical oncology, radiology, histopathology, and gastroenterology.
As at February 2023 there are 1,641 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the speciality of clinical oncology, which is an increase of 335 (25.7%) since 2019. This includes 865 consultants working in the speciality of clinical oncology, which is an increase of 120 (16.1%) since 2019.
As at February 2023 there are 5,362 FTE doctors working in the speciality of clinical radiology, which is an increase of 969 (22.0%) since 2019. This includes 3,672 consultants working in the speciality of clinical oncology, which is an increase of 575 (18.6%) since 2019.
The Government has also committed to publishing the Long Term Workforce Plan shortly. The Long Term Workforce Plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the (a) funding for and (b) number of specialty training posts in line with changes in the number of medical training places.
Answered by Will Quince
To support the workforce as a whole, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan for the next 15 years. This plan will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future. In 2022, Health Education England announced 750 additional medical specialty training posts across all programmes, and in 2023, HEE announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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’ Workforce Census Report 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's findings on (a) additional costs for clinical directors to meet imaging demand and (b) the cost of outsourcing scans; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure radiology departments are sustainable financially.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. To support the workforce as a whole, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term plan for the next 15 years, which will help ensure that we have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future. The plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce and will not provide detailed assessments for individual services.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on support imaging networks to help develop IT systems and image-sharing technologies.
Answered by Will Quince
The Secretary of State holds a number of discussions with NHS England on a range of issues, including diagnostic transformation. The Department is working with NHS England to support the maturity development of imaging networks across England by December 2023.