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Written question asked by Rachael Maskell (Labour) on Monday, 18 March 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 20 March 2024. It was answered by Andrew Stephenson (Conservative) on Tuesday, 26 March 2024 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

NHS: Health Professions

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the age demographic on the workforce for (a) medical physics and (b) clinical engineering.

Answer

No assessment has been made. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out future National Health Service workforce requirements and includes healthcare science figures, though this is not broken down into Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering workforce targets. The plan assesses that education and training places for healthcare scientists need to increase by 20 to 34%, reaching 930 to 1,039 places by 2033/34. The ambition set out in this plan is to increase training places for healthcare scientists by 32%, to over 1,000 places by 2031/32. We will work towards achieving this ambition by increasing training places by 13%, to over 850 places by 2028/29.

The workforce plan also sets out the ambition to retain up to 130,000 more staff across the NHS over the next 15 years, through measures to improve staff’s experience of working in the NHS. This applies to all NHS staff groups, including medical physicists and clinical engineers.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
19093
Session
2023-24
Subjects
Age Health professions Engineering NHS Physics
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk