The U.K. National Health Service (NHS) could waste over 400 million pounds (472 million euros) by 2030 if the government fails to invest more in imaging and cancer doctors, according to a new report by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) and policy experts WPI Economics.
The bottom line is that outsourcing is expensive and overseas recruitment is simply plugging a hole in the U.K.'s shortage of radiologists and clinical oncologists, the authors suggest.
A more viable approach is to invest in homegrown consultants, they wrote.
Sustained investment in radiology and clinical oncology would cost 652 million pounds (770 million euros) by 2030 and provide nearly all the clinical oncologists the NHS will need and around half the forecast shortfall of radiologists, according to the report.
The RCR worked with the firm WPI Economics on the report in response to studies predicting shortages of close to 6,000 clinical radiologists and 700 clinical oncologists by 2030.
For more on outsourcing in the U.K., look out for an in-depth report by AuntMinnieEurope.com next week.
