§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment they have made of the adequacy of NHS radiotherapy equipment and staffing; what regional differences exist in the availability of such equipment and staffing; and whether they will take any action to improve availability in the North West. [HL2667]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Baroness Jay of Paddington)The Government have made no such central assessment, these being matters for local decision making. A pair of reports about availability of radiotherapy was published by the Royal College of Radiologists on 8 July and provides valuable information for the local planning of services. The National Health Service Executive in the North West will find the reports, against the backdrop of the cancer targets in the Green and White Papers and the ongoing implementation of the Calman/Hine recommendations, useful locally for formulating and assessing bids for radiotherapy resources.
The college reports demonstrated that the North West Region came out worst, with 40 per cent. of patients waiting longer than the recommended maximum and West Midlands the best at 7 per cent. The North West had the lowest rate of linear accelerators per million population, at 1.88, with the West Midlands in sixth place, at 2.80. The highest rate was Wales at 3.08 and with the 60WA second best waiting times (14 per cent. waiting longer than recommended). In general the greater the provision of linear accelerators the lower the waiting times for radiotherapy were.