Health: Cancer Nurses

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Thornton]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the shortage of more than 400 specialist cancer nurses reported by Macmillan Cancer Support.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord O'Shaughnessy) (Con)]

My Lords, we welcome Macmillan Cancer Support’s report, which acknowledges the fact that the number of specialist cancer nurses has increased by nearly 1,000 full-time equivalent posts, or by 30%, since 2014. There is more to do, however, and Health Education England is working closely with Macmillan and the cancer alliances, so that we can achieve our aim that every cancer patient has access to a specialist cancer nurse by 2021.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for that Answer. The census also pointed to the facts that there are vacancy rates as high as 15% for chemotherapy nurses in some areas, that the proportion of specialist cancer nurses who are over 50 years old continues to climb, and that almost one in 10 specialist cancer nurses comes from the European Union. We know that there has been a cliff edge for recruitment from the European Union. I want to ask two questions. First, will the Minister assure the House that this census will be used by the Department of Health and Social Care, Health Education England and the cancer alliances to inform their strategic workforce planning? Secondly, will he explain what steps the department has taken to assess the level of funding required to deliver the recommendations contained in the Cancer Workforce Plan, including the long-term strategy?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness is quite right that the Macmillan report highlights some challenges around vacancy rates and the age profile of cancer nurse specialists. It was explicitly set out in the cancer workforce strategy that it would have a phase 2 of planning once the census had been published. This census has been published, so there is an absolute commitment by Health Education England to work with Macmillan and the cancer alliances to bottom out how many more staff are required to meet the standard that we have set out—for every patient to see a cancer nurse specialist by 2021—and how many extra people we would need to recruit for that, and therefore to deliver the funding that would enable that to happen.