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A shortage of clinical oncologists becoming a serious problem in the UK’s National Health Service

Written by Louis Gautier, Future Science Group

A survey by the Royal College of Radiologists has highlighted the falling numbers of consultant clinical oncologists in the NHS and how current staff lack the time for high quality cancer care.

New figures from a census conducted across 62 NHS cancer centers by the Royal College of Radiologists has highlighted the stark fall in the number of clinical and consultant oncologists and the negative impact this is having on patient care. The problem will be exacerbated by the backlog of undiagnosed cancer patients from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of 2020, there was an equivalent of 913 full-time clinical oncology consultants working across the UK NHS. Meanwhile, the number of newly diagnosed cancer patients needing non-surgical treatment across the UK was rising by an estimated 168,000 every year before coronavirus...

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