Cancer: Doctors
(asked on 29th August 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 June 2025 to Question 61726, if he will publish: (a) the data source for the reported 8.9% increase in doctors working in clinical oncology between 2021 and 2023, (b) the number and percentage increase in consultant clinical oncologists over that same period and (c) the number of consultant clinical ncologists per capita by Integrated Care System or NHS Trust area, including identification of the five areas with the lowest consultant-to-population ratios.
NHS England publishes monthly data on the number of staff employed by National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards (ICBs) in England, which is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics
It should be noted that the change in doctors working in the specialty of clinical oncology is between February 2024 and February 2025, the latest period for which data is available.
As of February 2025, there were over 1,800 full time equivalent doctors working in the speciality of clinical oncology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is almost 150, or 8.9%, more than in 2024.
The change in the total number of full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of clinical oncology employed by NHS trusts and ICBs in England between 31 December 2020 and 31 December 2023 was 14.1%; the change over the same period in consultant clinical oncologists was 12.2%.
The following table shows the number of FTE consultant clinical oncologists employed by NHS trusts or ICBs per million population by ICB area for February 2025:
ICB | Consultant Clinical Oncologists – FTE, February 2025 | ONS Projected Population, June 2025 | Consultant Oncologists (per 1,000,000 population) |
Mid and South Essex | - | 1,232,502 | - |
Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin | - | 533,260 | - |
Humber and North Yorkshire | 1.1 | 1,744,824 | 0.6 |
South West London | 5.8 | 1,557,624 | 3.7 |
Frimley | 3.0 | 791,237 | 3.8 |
West Yorkshire | 23.2 | 2,497,926 | 9.3 |
Coventry and Warwickshire | 9.6 | 1,016,366 | 9.4 |
Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire | 9.7 | 980,250 | 9.9 |
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent | 11.8 | 1,167,873 | 10.1 |
Somerset | 6.0 | 590,928 | 10.2 |
Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes | 11.1 | 1,060,963 | 10.5 |
Black Country | 13.9 | 1,249,119 | 11.1 |
Sussex | 20.5 | 1,768,736 | 11.6 |
Northamptonshire | 9.5 | 817,757 | 11.6 |
North East London | 25.6 | 2,147,223 | 11.9 |
Lancashire and South Cumbria | 21.3 | 1,779,694 | 12.0 |
North Central London | 18.0 | 1,485,975 | 12.1 |
Cheshire and Merseyside | 36.4 | 2,620,678 | 13.9 |
Lincolnshire | 11.2 | 795,667 | 14.1 |
North East and North Cumbria | 46.0 | 3,070,741 | 15.0 |
Norfolk and Waveney | 17.5 | 1,071,923 | 16.3 |
Derby and Derbyshire | 17.9 | 1,091,150 | 16.4 |
Herefordshire and Worcestershire | 13.6 | 815,030 | 16.7 |
Suffolk and North East Essex | 17.8 | 1,028,298 | 17.3 |
Greater Manchester | 52.2 | 3,008,589 | 17.4 |
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly | 10.7 | 596,108 | 17.9 |
Gloucestershire | 12.4 | 671,296 | 18.5 |
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire | 24.4 | 1,198,878 | 20.4 |
Hampshire and Isle of Wight | 39.3 | 1,893,635 | 20.8 |
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland | 25.3 | 1,184,050 | 21.4 |
Kent and Medway | 42.0 | 1,932,162 | 21.8 |
Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West | 42.3 | 1,870,248 | 22.6 |
South East London | 42.1 | 1,861,345 | 22.6 |
North West London | 52.9 | 2,222,784 | 23.8 |
Dorset | 19.7 | 802,632 | 24.6 |
South Yorkshire | 36.0 | 1,432,349 | 25.1 |
Surrey Heartlands | 28.0 | 1,085,724 | 25.7 |
Birmingham and Solihull | 36.5 | 1,407,053 | 26.0 |
Hertfordshire and West Essex | 44.0 | 1,540,310 | 28.6 |
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough | 27.8 | 964,041 | 28.8 |
Devon | 37.4 | 1,268,832 | 29.5 |
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire | 33.5 | 1,037,500 | 32.3 |
England | 957.1 | 58,893,277 | 16.3 |
Source: NHS England
Notes:
- This data should be viewed with an understanding of the structure of delivery of system wide cancer services, where delivery of some specialist services will be concentrated in specific ICB areas.
- Consultant oncologist data is taken from NHS England published data
- ICB populations are taken from Office for National Statistics sub national population projections for mid-2025, which are available at the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/datasets/populationprojectionsforsubintegratedcareboardsbyfiveyearagegroupsandsexengland