Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the long-term workforce plan for the NHS will consider how many diagnostic professionals are needed to meet the ambition to diagnose three out of every four cancers in the next 10 years.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding to lead a number of programmes to engage with key National Health Service interests to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan.
The interim NHS People Plan, published on 3 June 2019, acknowledges that further action must be taken to increase the numbers of staff. It will undertake a detailed review of all branches of workforce in advance of the full People Plan, in order to identify steps to grow and recruit a world class cancer workforce to the NHS.