Severe shortage of NHS cancer specialists is threatening patient care, warns report
- Royal College of Radiologists warns the NHS will be 22% short by 2023
- Cutting-edge therapies may not be delivered without more investment
- One in six centres operates with fewer oncology consultants than five years ago
A severe shortage of NHS clinical oncologists is threatening the care of cancer patients, a report has warned.
The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) says a growing staffing shortage will leave the NHS a fifth short (22 per cent) of cancer consultants by 2023.
Cutting-edge cancer therapies – such as immunotherapy and proton beam therapy – may not be delivered to all those who could benefit without more investment, it warned.
The UK is now short of at least 184 clinical oncologists, it said, which was the minimum number needed to fill vacancies and cover the extra hours doctors are working to treat patients.
One in six UK cancer centres now operates with fewer clinical oncology consultants than five years ago, according to the report.
A shortage of NHS clinical oncologists is threatening the care of cancer patients (stock)
It said vacancies for clinical oncology posts are currently double what they were in 2013 – rising from 33 to 70 – and more than half of vacant posts have been empty for a year or more.
The warning comes as experts said cervical screening services were in ‘meltdown’ with dozens of hospital screening laboratories due to close this summer as part of a restructuring process.
Dr Alison Cropper, chairman of the British Association for Cytopathology, said the coinciding of the closures with a campaign by Public Health England could force women to wait months for screening results.
The RCRs report said there were 863 full-time equivalent clinical oncology consultants working across the UK’s 62 cancer centres in 2018 – up 46 on the previous year.
But this was not enough to keep up with demand with oncology trainee numbers needing to at least double to close the gap between supply and demand.
Almost 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every day and demand for radiotherapy is going up two per cent every year, while demand for chemotherapy is rising four per cent a year.
Dr Tom Roques, lead author of the workforce report, said: ‘The UK is seeing more and more fantastic innovations in cancer treatment – from the introduction of new immunotherapy drugs to the NHS’s first high-energy proton beam radiotherapy centre.
‘Clinical oncologists are vital to the rollout of these new therapies but we do not have enough of them and our workforce projections are increasingly bleak, which begs the question: What kind of service will we be able to provide for our patients in future?
‘Today’s RCR workforce figures and forecasts show our cancer hospitals under immense strain – some centres have seen a reduction or stall in consultant numbers and many are desperate but failing to recruit, predominantly because we do not have enough consultants in training.’