NHS Workforce Levels: Impact on Cancer Patients

Caroline Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Dr Caroline Johnson (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mrs Hobhouse. I congratulate the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) on securing this debate.

Across the United Kingdom, an estimated 3.5 million people are living with cancer. We all know a friend, family member or co-worker who has battled the disease, and, sadly, we also all know of somebody whose life was cut short by it. Our country faces an ageing population, which will mean more cancer cases in the years to come; the longer we live, the greater the risk.

Troublingly, cancer rates are also rising among those in their 20s, 30s and 40s, so getting cancer care right today will mean the difference between lives saved and lives lost tomorrow. We know that the NHS cannot deliver timely, effective cancer care without the workforce trained to provide it. We owe it to patients fighting cancer today—and the 50% of us who will face cancer tomorrow—to fix the situation.

NHS staff are carrying out more cancer checks than ever before: more than 3 million a year in 2024, compared with less than half that a decade ago. In the last five years, we have also benefited from an increase in the number of clinical and medical oncologists in the NHS as well as of clinical radiology staff. Sadly, however, demand for services is fast outpacing the supply of staff, putting teams under immense pressure. Last year, more than 74,000 people in England were not treated on time for cancer, increasing their risk from the disease.

Formal training for medical staff begins at university. The previous Government increased the number of places at medical school, and increased the number of medical schools by building five new ones. This Government have said that they will increase the number of medical school places. Could the Minister confirm the places that they will fund for next September, bearing in mind that the application date has now passed?

The next step, postgraduate training, faces challenges too. The previous Government, as I said, increased medical school places. They also removed the resident labour market test because of the shortage of doctors. The Secretary of State appeared to understand back in Easter the effect that that was going to start to have, as the newly trained doctors came through their postgraduate training.

Over the last two years, the number of international medical graduates applying for training posts has also increased dramatically. The application ratio for postgraduate training posts has gone up substantially and there is a risk that some junior doctors will not get a job. There is also a risk that international medical graduates who get more of the places will return to their country of origin after they have completed training, so we will have unemployed British trainees and doctors who return after training, leaving us with a shortage of consultants in a few years’ time. That issue has been highlighted by the British Medical Association, of which I am a member. Sadly, it has announced that doctors will go on strike from 14 to 19 November this year, partly as a result of pay and partly as a result of job shortages.

The Secretary of State was vociferous in his criticisms of the previous Government when doctors went on strike. What will he and the Minister do to get the doctors back to work? Cancer treatment requires surgery, oncology, haematology, radiology, pathology and geneticists—every specialty across the NHS, including, sadly, paediatrics and sometimes even neonatologists.

There are also challenges across the nursing sector. We saw nurses this year coming out of nursing college with qualifications, but without the posts to go to. There is also a need for other allied health professionals—pharmacists, radiologists, laboratory staff, mammographers and research assistants. Will the workforce plan reflect this? When will it be published? Will it make projections about the population with cancer and will the Government publish those, too? The Government committed to more MRIs and CT scanners. How many new ones have they got in place? How well are they progressing with their targets?

We have heard about the importance of research today. Scientists are a key part of our cancer workforce. We heard yesterday in the Chamber about the challenges that the life sciences sector is facing. The £1 billion investment from Merck for King’s Cross has been shelved. The more than £200 million investment from AstraZeneca in Speke, near Liverpool, has also been shelved, and other investments are paused or mothballed. The industry is talking about poor Government engagement, employment regulations, increased employment taxes such as national insurance, and how they are increasing the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access payment rate.

What are the Government going to do to ensure that we have research in this country? Research is a real success. We have the best scientists in the world. We have cutting-edge treatment, trial drugs and novel approaches. Those are all more accessible earlier if they are done in the UK. They also provide good jobs for the British workforce. What work is the Minister doing with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology team? What representation is she making to the Treasury to ensure that supporting research is part of the Government’s actions as well as messaging? Will the supporting research be part of the cancer plan? What support is the Minister giving to rare cancers, particularly those that are particularly lethal such as pancreatic cancer? What about brain tumours, where survival has shown little or no improvement? What focus will the cancer plan have on those?

I sat on the Rare Cancers Bill Committee. The rare diseases framework points out that one in 17 of us will get a rare disease during our lifetime. The current framework initiated by the last Government runs out in around three months’ time. Do the Government plan to replace it? If so, what with and when?

Sadly, as I said earlier, children and teenagers—young people—also get cancer, and they have particular needs as they go through puberty and young adulthood. The workforce therefore has to have particular strengths because of the work involved. I commend the work of the Teenage Cancer Trust and the work that my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) is doing. Can the Minister confirm that young people’s and children’s cancer will form an important part of the cancer plan?

Computer scientists will also be key to the cancer workforce. We have heard about the importance of AI. Computers can already identify skin cancer from benign lesions in many cases. The Health and Social Care Select Committee, which I was part of in the last Parliament, visited Stanford in California. We saw how AI was being used to look at mammograms and how, rather than using two doctors, they used one doctor and an AI computer. That was better than either two computers or two clinicians. What is the Minister doing to ensure that, from early education in schools, we are teaching the right skills to develop the right workforce for the AI of the future?

We are getting better at treating cancer, so thankfully there is life after cancer, but post-cancer care is important too. Some people live with things such as lymphoedema, amputations and stomas as a result of their cancer treatment. What focus does the Minister expect there to be in the workforce plan and cancer plan on those issues?

Palliative care is important for those who cannot be treated successfully and whose cancer cannot be cured, but hospices are in crisis across the country. The Government have given extra money for capital, and some for children, which is of course welcome, but hospices across the country are facing huge costs, particularly from the national insurance measures in the last Budget, and neither fund will cover that for adult hospices. Right across the country, we hear about adult hospices that are closing beds. What will the Minister do about that in her plan? How does she expect us to decide on the assisted suicide Bill when palliative care is facing such difficulty? What about the mental health workforce? It is important that people are supported through their cancer journey.

We had the 10-year health plan, with which came the promise of a workforce plan and a national cancer plan, but across the country the British people are waiting. They watch the Labour Government crafting glossy catalogues of intent but failing to deliver for our NHS. The time for planning and prevarication is over. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

--- Later in debate ---

[Clive Jones]

I thank you, Mrs Hobhouse, and the Minister for leaving me time to sum up the debate. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for her contribution and her kind remarks, and I thank other Members for their kind remarks as well. I thank all hon. Members who have contributed so much to today’s debate, each having special stories to tell about the areas they represent. All of them are fantastic campaigners for the cancer community.

We can all agree with the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon): we all hate cancer. In fact, I am sure everybody in this room today hates cancer.

[Dr Caroline Johnson]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Clive Jones]

I will make some progress.

I must also say a big thank you to all the cancer charities and life sciences companies that have provided valuable insight into the state of the NHS workforce and its effect on cancer patients. The impact of NHS workforce levels on cancer patients is a serious topic that needs to be discussed, and the experience of patients needs to be highlighted. Today has raised key demands for the Government to address.

The Government must increase endoscopy and pathology capacity. They should audit and invest in phlebotomy services, as called for by Leukaemia UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners. They also need to establish a national register of phlebotomy sites. The Government need to provide targeted support for the most deprived areas of the country, which are under immense pressure, and they need to replace doctors who they know are likely to retire in the next few years.

The Government must up their game on cancer. They have been left a very difficult legacy, with no money and no enthusiasm to change the way we deal with cancer, which is a really sad indictment of the previous Conservative Government. Finally, the Government must increase recruitment, training and retention; support primary care referrals; invest in diagnostic infrastructure and education; guarantee access to clinical nurse specialists; and prioritise support for patients with less survivable cancers.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the impact of NHS workforce levels on cancer patients.