Staff crisis threatens cancer care despite £20m windfall

Published on Tuesday 17 March 2009 21:04

HUNDREDS of patients could miss out on benefiting from a new £20 million investment in equipment to treat cancer unless more staff are brought in to use it, it emerged yesterday.

Nicola Sturgeon, the health secretary, said the funding would be used to buy new radiotherapy equipment over the next year.

But it emerged NHS Lothian is currently able to treat only two patients a month using the more advanced technique, but would like to increase this to 1,000 a year. In Glasgow, about five patients a month benefit from the technique, but doctors would like this to increase to 2,000 a year.

Doctors said that while yesterday's investment was welcomed, more staff with the specialist training to provide the treatment were required if they were to offer the treatment to as many patients as possible.

Ms Sturgeon admitted workforce issues would need to be addressed as the government moved forward with their strategy to improve cancer care across Scotland.

New linear accelerators – machines that generate high-energy X-rays to treat cancer – will in future all include the capacity to provide a more targeted treatment known as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

This technique is at present available only on a limited basis in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but equipment will now be rolled out to Grampian, Highland and Tayside.

In Edinburgh, around two patients a month benefit from IMRT. But doctors at the unit at the Western General Hospital said they would like this to increase to 1,000 a year with extra staff to deal with the planning of the treatment.

While normal radiotherapy takes a few hours to plan, IMRT can take several days, involving physicists and radiotherapists to work out the correct doses of radiation and the right way of delivering the treatment.

Dr Grahame Howard, a consultant oncologist at the Edinburgh Cancer Centre, said one of the benefits of IMRT was that it could be very specifically targeted at a tumour.

"This approach means we can increase the dose of radiation and increase cure rates, while sparing the normal tissue and reducing side effects," he said.

Dr Howard said the equipment, which costs more than 1 million, was useful in treating cancers of the head, neck and prostate, but could be used for a whole range of cancers.

But to offer this, extra staff are needed for the planning of radiotherapy treatment.

The cancer centre is hoping to have funding approved for an additional 18 staff to deliver this service, but this has yet to be finalised.

Dr Howard added: "You will always have to find money and money is tight, but everyone is convinced that we have to do this. You have to train people up."

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said all 11 linear accelerators at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre could deliver IMRT.

"On average, we currently treat about five patients per month using IMRT techniques," she said. "We continue to develop plans to increase the availability of this technology so that in future around 2,000 patients a year would benefit from IMRT."

Ms Sturgeon said:"We have a responsibility to invest in the equipment, but through the cancer taskforce that is taking forward the cancer strategy, workforce issues also have to be addressed to make sure we have the wherewithal and resources to make maximum use of the technology."