APPG-RT Chair Tim Farron MP launches findings from ‘Inquiry into radiotherapy and the cancer crisis’.
At a recent APPG-RT meeting, Chair Tim Farron launched the findings from the January 2023 inquiry into radiotherapy and the cancer crisis.
The report highlights that decades of systematic under-funding and under-resourcing of radiotherapy means that the UK lags far behind comparable countries in the numbers of patients able to access life-saving radiotherapy treatments and the numbers of machines delivering radiotherapy per head of population. Evidence presented at the inquiry highlighted a workforce under severe pressure, bureaucracy stifling progress and a lack of strategic investment and leadership.
In his foreword, Tim Farron states that
“Cancer services in the UK are facing an increasingly turbulent future; patients face record wait times for treatment, the workforce and systems are overwhelmed by the COVID backlog and advances in treatments such as radiotherapy, which have the potential to save lives and treat patients more effectively, are ignored. Inexcusably, despite this crisis, there is no suitable Cancer Control Plan in place to urgently and effectively bring about world-class cancer care for patients in the UK.”
To support delivering this world-class cancer care, the APPG on Radiotherapy sets out 7 recommendations.
- DHSC to deliver an urgent and fully costed Cancer Plan with provision for transforming radiotherapy services. This should aim to be able to treat 500,000 cancer patients a year by 2040 to international standards and within Government target times.
- The Government to appoint an Independent Radiotherapy Leadership Group, with international peer review, to work with front-line staff and industry professionals to organise the service at a national level. This group should facilitate the technological revolution in radiotherapy that cancer patients in other countries are currently benefitting from, audit results and ensure a new national radiotherapy strategy is implemented.
- DHSC to undertake an independent analysis of the numbers of cancer patients who could benefit from radiotherapy to inform a new national radiotherapy strategy setting out how they plan to improve access to international standards.
- DHSC to urgently publish a detailed and funded workforce plan.
- NHSE to implement a national equipment replacement programme of ring-fenced funding to support planned LINAC replacements and assess and prepare for future radiotherapy needs to ensure equality of access as incidence of cancer increases and early diagnosis requires increased treatment capacity.
- Invest in a recruitment and retention strategy for radiotherapy and reinstate trainee funding schemes, as well as in-work training of staff on new techniques on radiotherapy.
- There should be significant investment in IT and workforce to capitalise on the opportunities in this high-tech field of medicine.
Thank you to all the patients, workforce and organisations who contributed to the evidence gathered by this inquiry.
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