Parliamentary Questions tabled on issues raised by IPEM
27/03/2024
IPEM’s Director of Policy & Impact, Dr Jemimah Eve, and Head of Communications & Public Affairs, Chris Watt, recently met with Health Select Committee member, Rachael Maskell MP. The meeting was very positive, with Ms Maskell expressing concern that Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering are a hidden workforce that was not specifically mentioned in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Following the meeting, the MP tabled a range of Parliamentary Questions on some of the issues discussed in the meeting. They were answered by Andrew Stephenson, the Minister of State for Health.
Health Professions: Career Development
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the modernising scientific careers framework for (a) medical physicists, (b) clinical engineers and (c) clinical scientists.
Andrew Stephenson: The curriculum underpinning the Modernising Scientific Careers framework has been recently reviewed. Undergraduate level training, known as the Practitioner Training Programme, now has the Practitioner Training Programme Principles. This means there is now far more flexibility when Higher Education Institutes design new, or develop existing, courses. The postgraduate level training for clinical scientists, known as the Scientist Training Programme, has been substantially reviewed. The professions had considerable input into the rewriting of the curricula. The first cohort of trainees started the new curriculum in September 2022. This includes all Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering specialisms.
Healthcare Science in Scotland
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Scottish Government's publication entitled Healthcare Science in Scotland: Defining Our Strategic Approach, published on 14 March 2024, and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a similar strategy for England.
Andrew Stephenson: The Department has not made an assessment of the publication, Healthcare Science in Scotland: Defining Our Strategic Approach. NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in June 2023, which sets out future National Health Service workforce requirements for England, including with respect to healthcare scientists. The plan assesses that education and training places for healthcare scientists need to increase by 20 to 34%, reaching between 930 to 1,039 places by 2033/34. The ambition set out in this plan is to increase training places for healthcare scientists by 32%, to over 1,000 places by 2031/32. We will work towards achieving this ambition by increasing training places by 13%, to over 850 places, by 2028/29.
Hospitals: Medical Equipment
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that (a) medical physicists and (b) clinical engineers have adequate access to advanced (a) radiotherapy and (b) other relevant equipment in hospitals.
Andrew Stephenson: The Government and NHS England work closely together to ensure that staff have access to appropriate equipment, to ensure that cancer patients can receive high quality radiotherapy treatment across England. This includes supporting advances in radiotherapy, using cutting-edge imaging and technology to help target radiation doses at cancer cells more precisely. The Government has invested in the latest technology in radiotherapy, ensuring that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health Service from 2022 to 2025.
NHS: Health Professions
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the age demographic on the workforce for (a) medical physics and (b) clinical engineering.
Andrew Stephenson: No assessment has been made. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out future National Health Service workforce requirements and includes healthcare science figures, though this is not broken down into Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering workforce targets. The plan assesses that education and training places for healthcare scientists need to increase by 20 to 34%, reaching 930 to 1,039 places by 2033/34. The ambition set out in this plan is to increase training places for healthcare scientists by 32%, to over 1,000 places by 2031/32. We will work towards achieving this ambition by increasing training places by 13%, to over 850 places by 2028/29. The workforce plan also sets out the ambition to retain up to 130,000 more staff across the NHS over the next 15 years, through measures to improve staff’s experience of working in the NHS. This applies to all NHS staff groups, including medical physicists and clinical engineers.
Radiology: Medical Equipment
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will undertake an audit of NHS equipment used in radiotherapy treatments.
Andrew Stephenson: Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. Consequently, the Department has no plans to audit National Health Service equipment used in radiotherapy treatments.
NHS: Health Professions
Rachael Maskell: [19087] To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the numbers of (a) Medical Physicists and (b) Clinical Engineers in the NHS Workforce as of 18 March 2024.
Andrew Stephenson: NHS England publishes monthly data on the numbers of National Health Service staff. This data is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, the human resources system for the NHS, and is available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce[1]statistics The number of healthcare scientists working within the care settings of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering can be found in the NHS Workforce Statistics, November 2023 Staff Group, Care Setting and Level file, within the scientific, therapeutic, and technical staff, or ST&T, tab.
MPCE numbers
Rachael Maskell: [19088] To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) Medical Physicists and (b) Clinical Engineers required in the NHS over the next (i) five (ii) 10 and (iii) 15 years.
Andrew Stephenson: NHS England does not hold data centrally on the requested information, although there are a range of estimates carried out by different groups. The Diagnostic Imaging Networks have been encouraged to look at demand and capacity modelling at an integrated care board level.
Advances in technology
Rachael Maskell: [19090] To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent advances in clinical (a) technology and (b) other equipment on the number of (i) medical physicists and (ii) clinical engineers that are required in the NHS.
Andrew Stephenson: The Department does not plan to make specific assessments of the impacts, but advances in clinical technology and equipment are crucial to the work of NHS England. For example, the Government has invested in the latest technology in radiotherapy, ensuring that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. The Department does not plan to make specific assessments of the number of medical physicists and clinical engineers required in the National Health Service, but is backing the NHS’s Long-Term Workforce Plan with over £2.4 billion of funding over the next five years, to ensure additional education and training places. We are also working with NHS England to reform and modernise the way staff work and harness new technology and innovations to double NHS labour productivity, and to make sure staff can spend more time with patients. Finally, NHS England is also growing the cancer workforce, with 50% more staff in the cancer workforce when compared to 2010.
Other meetings
Mr Watt has also met with Andrew Jones MP, who has a keen interest in education, training and apparenticeships and promised to discuss how apprentices can help to address the MPCE workforce challenge with the relevant Minister.
He said: ‘We were delighted to have such constructive conversations with the MPs, who have both said that they will take up issues of concern to IPEM and its members.
‘The Parliamentary answers that Ms Maskell has gained help us to know the Government’s understanding of, and plans for the MPCE workforce, whilst we are writing to the Apparenticeships Minister to follow up Mr Jones’ approach to emphasise the importance of boosting education and training in the professions IPEM represents and the role that apprenticeships can play in that.’
These meetings are part of IPEM’s ongoing programme of cross party and UK wide public affairs activity.