While welcoming the announcement that the National Health Service (NHS) in England intends to spend 130 million pounds (145.3 million euros) on linear accelerator (linacs) equipment to treat cancer, the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) and the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) have expressed concerns the investment won't be sufficient.
In a statement, the BIR noted the linacs require a multidisciplinary team of staff that must be trained to use the machines effectively, as well as a tariff system that matches the increasingly complex treatment plans required by these machines. Radiotherapy equipment saves lives and is cost-effective, but a one-off injection of cash won't make the country's radiotherapy service sustainable, according to BIR President Andy Rogers.
"This funding does nothing to address the staff recruitment to enable these machines to be fully utilized," he said in a statement. "There are chronic shortages of clinical oncologists, medical physicists, and therapeutic radiographers -- the vital team needed to support this equipment. Furthermore, this is only approximately 50% of the funding recommended by the Cancer Taskforce."
Indeed, the funding allocation does not go far enough to support delivery of a radiotherapy service fit for the 21st century, the RCR said. The investment -- compared with the population -- is also less than one-third of that pledged by the Scottish government earlier this year.
"If the government wishes to achieve world-class cancer outcomes by 2020, significantly more investment in radiotherapy services is required at least up to the equivalent level announced for Scotland," said RCR Vice President for Clinical Oncology Dr. Jeanette Dickson in a statement.
