Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of workforce shortages on cancer treatment waiting times.
Answered by Will Quince
No assessment has been made.
The Government is committed to reducing cancer waiting times and has worked with NHS England to publish the elective recovery delivery plan in February 2022, backed by funding of £8 billion, to drive up elective activity. This is further supported by £2.3 billion to expand diagnostic services, including the role of community diagnostic centres prioritising cancer services.
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 and medical oncology, radiology, histopathology and gastroenterology.
As of February 2023, there were 33,174 full-time equivalent staff in the cancer workforce in National Health Service trusts in England, including histopathologists, gastroenterologists, clinical radiologists, medical and clinical oncologists and diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers.
In January 2023, Health Education England announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year, including more than 500 in the key areas of mental health and cancer treatment.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) NHS oncologists who are (i) employed and (ii) unemployed and (b) vacancies for that role in (A) Shropshire and (B) England as of 17 July 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
There are 17 full-time equivalent doctors working in the oncology specialisms at hospital trusts and core organisations in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board as of March 2023, which is the latest available data.
Information on unemployed oncologists and vacancies is not held centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many beds there were at (a) Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust and (b) Shropshire Community Health Trust in each year between 2015 and 2023; and what targets there is for the number of beds at each trust in winter 2023-24.
Answered by Will Quince
The average number of beds at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH) in 2015 to -2023 is shown in the table below.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust | |
Year | Total average General & Acute Beds per year |
2015/16 | 715 |
2016/17 | 729 |
2017/18 | 650 |
2018/19 | 665 |
2019/20 | 706 |
2020/21 | 691 |
2021/22 | 725 |
2022/23 | 759 |
2023/24 YTD | 773 |
Source: NHS England
The NHS Shropshire Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board is planning to create an additional 52 sub-acute beds on the SaTH footprint by this winter. That will enable the trust to increase patient flow through its General and Acute bed base.
The information is not available in the format requested for Shropshire Community Health Trust (SCHT). SCHT is not planning any change to its bed base in 2023/24.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 increase the number of dentistry schools in rural areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We acknowledge that there are areas of the country that are experiencing recruitment and retention issues and we are taking steps to address the workforce challenges across the country, including in rural areas.
We are currently working with partners to assess the capacity within existing dental schools to accommodate the proposed expansion in training places set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. Work is also underway through the establishment of Centres for Dental Development to bring together dental education and training with service delivery models, particularly in areas where there is a shortage of workforce relative to population need.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 increase the number of (a) doctors specialising in clinical radiology and (b) diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers at Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin integrated care board.
Answered by Will Quince
As of March 2023, there were 5,350 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in clinical radiology in National Health Service trusts in England, 269 more than a year ago, representing a 5.3% increase.
As of March 2023, there were 17,006 FTE diagnostic radiographers and 3,024 FTE therapeutic radiographers working in NHS trusts and integrated care boards in England. Compared to March 2022, that is an increase of 882 in diagnostic radiographers, a 5.5% increase, and an increase of 67 in therapeutic radiographers, a 2.3% increase.
In January 2023, Health Education England announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year, including more than 500 in the key areas of mental health and cancer treatment.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), published in June 2023, includes 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. This will increase the potential pipeline for clinical radiologists. The LTWP also sets out planned increases in the training intake for diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers to 2,300 and 475 respectively per year by 2031.
These steps will benefit every integrated care board area, including Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of consultant radiographers employed by the NHS in (a) the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System and (b) England as of 17 July 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The table below shows the number of full-time equivalent consultant radiographers in hospital trusts with Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board (ICB) and in England as of March 2023, which is the latest period for which data is available.
Care Setting | Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICB | England |
Diagnostic Radiography | 2 | 140 |
Therapeutic Radiography | - | 54 |
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 impact of changes in the level of access to dental services on long-term NHS budgets.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS dentists there are in (a) rural and (b) urban areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
This information is not held centrally
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 increase the number of NHS dentists in rural areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We acknowledge that there are areas of the country that are experiencing recruitment and retention issues and we are taking steps to address the National Health Service dental workforce challenges across the country.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32. To support this ambition, we will expand places by 24% by 2028/29, taking the overall number that year to 1,000 places.
Furthermore, our plan for dentistry will be published shortly to build upon a package of improvements to the NHS dental system announced in July 2022.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department are taking to support Maternity Support Workers undertaking midwifery apprenticeships.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets an ambition for 5% of the annual intake for midwifery training to come through apprenticeship routes (compared to under 1% currently). The National Health Service is supportive of this being higher in geographies where there is a need.