Radiotherapy: Medical Equipment
(asked on 30th March 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that hospital trusts are not using linear accelerator radiotherapy machines over the 10 year recommended lifespan.
Answered by
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 31 March 2022, there were approximately 20 linear accelerator radiotherapy machines (LINACs) aged 10 years or over in routine National Health Service use.
Since 2016, £162 million has been provided to support the replacement and upgrade of 100 LINACs. The 2021 Spending Review allocated £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS over the next three years. This investment will be managed by local systems and will include the modernisation of the radiotherapy estate, to replace any machine which is more than 10 years old.