Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
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 effectiveness of the Global Radiologists Programme in filling NHS radiology vacancies.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to commission research on the potential impact of artificial intelligence on (a) diagnostics, (b) health economics and (c) clinicians' workloads.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2017, the Department has invested £148 million through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and an additional £123 million through the AI in Health and Care Award to research artificial intelligence in healthcare. This is funding research into the potential impact of artificial intelligence on diagnosis and treatment for major conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and research into how the technology can be used to improve NHS services and reduce the burden of clinicians’ workloads.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
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 in the workforce plan to improve the retention rate for doctors.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will seek to ensure that we have the right numbers of staff with the right skills to deliver high quality services fit for the future. This includes improving retention for all staff groups, including doctors.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the (a) Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) NHS England on increasing funding for the clinical (i) radiology and (ii) oncology workforces.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and NHS England on a variety of matters pertaining to health and social care.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on reviewing funding for specialty training posts and incentivising NHS trusts to take on new trainees.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and NHS England on a variety of matters pertaining to health and social care.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to commission a review into streamlining the Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration process.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
On 14 December 2022 a statutory instrument was laid which amends the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Order of Council 2010 and The General Medical Council (Applications for General Practice and Specialist Registration) Regulations 2010 to provide the General Medical Council (GMC) with the freedom to develop additional registration pathways for GP and specialist registration.
These changes do not amend the GMC’s Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) process but provide it with broader registration criteria and flexibility to expand the range of evidence that it can accept from applicants. The Order has a commencement date of 30 November 2023. There are no further plans for the Department to review the CESR process.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
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 funding for the clinical (a) radiology and (b) oncology workforce.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The work of the Long Term Workforce Plan will be used to inform future Government work on how to best meet the needs of patients and the National Health Service workforce. The Plan is for the whole of the NHS workforce, including cancer services; however, it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of trained interventional radiologists in the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
As of October 2022, there were 1,588 full-time equivalent doctors in training in the clinical radiology specialty in the National Health Service in England. This is an increase of 252, 18.9%, since 2019.
The Government funded an additional 20 Specialty Training year six (ST6) places for interventional radiologists in 2021/22 and 2022/23. These increases in the overall radiology workforce will increase the number of radiologists who can train to deliver interventional radiology and expand national capacity for the paediatric interventional radiology workforce.
To support the workforce as a whole, we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the NHS workforce, it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
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 unequal access to paediatric interventional radiology services on (a) survival rates and (b) life-long health complications for children eligible for this care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Surgery in Children Clinical Reference Group (CRG) provides clinical leadership and advice to NHS England and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Group, including on paediatric imaging and interventional radiology. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Programme of Care, the CRG and the Surgery in Children Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) have had to prioritise surgery restoration and recovery, however, the issues linked to the concerns raised about access to interventional radiology are to be presented to the Women and Children’s Programme of Care on the 28 June 2023 and will also be presented to ODNs to incorporate into their respective network work programmes during 2023/24.
Equal access will also be the subject of discussions between NHS England and the Department.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Mid Buckinghamshire)
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 implications for his policies of The Royal College of Radiologists’ findings that there are (a) 12 consultant paediatric interventional radiology posts in the UK and (b) five paediatric interventional radiology posts based outside London; and if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of those posts.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
The Department will be discussing the geographic spread of posts with NHS England.
I have agreed to meet the Royal College of Radiologists so this matter will also be discussed in a meeting with them.