Training more cancer specialists ‘will save lives and £400m for NHS’

MORE cancer doctors must be trained in the UK to avoid the NHS wasting about £400million over the next decade and compromising patient care, radiologists have warned.

Across the UK there are an estimated 1,939 full-time consultant clinical radiologist posts unfilled – representing a 33 per cent shortfall. An extra 189 clinical oncology consultants are also needed to make up the 19 per cent deficit.

“Tackling the shortage of imaging and cancer specialists is necessary to ensure that patient outcomes do not continue to suffer,” a report by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) and WPI Economics stated. Without action there will be shortages of 6,000 consultant clinical radiologists and 700 consultant clinical oncologists by 2030, it added.

“These shortfalls are costing lives and costing the NHS money, through the need to outsource work and recruit from overseas as well as facing increased treatment costs for patients diagnosed late, which would be better spent elsewhere, improving patient outcomes.

“Doing it in a sustainable way will mean that we do not continue to place excessive pressure on an already overstretched workforce, meaning that productivity, retention and experience will also rise,” the report added.

The authors estimate that investment in the two medical specialities would cost £652million by 2030 and provide nearly all the clinical oncologists the NHS would need and about half the predicted shortfall of radiologists.

But continuing with existing strategies to manage workforce shortages, including overseas recruitment and investing in new technology such as Artificial Intelligence, would cost just over £1 billion by 2030.

Dr Jeanette Dickson, president of the RCR, said: “The cancer backlog is well documented and it is clear we currently do not have enough imaging and cancer doctors to provide safe patient care.”