Freedom of Information Request to the Department of Health on numbers of NM Techs & Radiographersg

BNMS recently submitted a FOI request to the Department of Health for the following data:

In the light of the 2020 Richards Report ‘Diagnostics Recovery and Renewal’¹ the British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS) is concerned about the numbers of the professional workforce available to deliver the expected increase in Nuclear Medicine scans.

The report does investigate some aspects of the diagnostic workforce requirements quite well notably in CT and radiology generally, however the Nuclear Medicine (NM) workforce is not investigated fully. Richards’ acknowledges that there is an 18.7% annual growth rate in PET-CT scans performed (table 3) which far exceeds any other radiology imaging modality such as CT. In order to maintain a national PET-CT service which is vital to the management of many diseases, most notably in cancer care, we need to ensure that we increase the capacity of our scanning facilities and provide the professional staff required to run this service safely.

According to Richards, 3,500 extra radiographer training places are required over the next 5 years (para 5.10) however this is a target for undergraduate training in radiology. This is where we have a serious problem. In Nuclear Medicine our workforce is made up of both Radiographers who have specialized in NM with a post-graduate education to MSc/PgD level,  and Nuclear Medicine Technologist who have undertaken a direct entry to Nuclear Medicine and therefore cannot get HCPC statutory registration and there for have reduced clinical rights. Furthermore NM Technologists often have been recruited with overseas qualifications. The 3,500 additional Radiographers promised may therefore bypass us in the NM community.

The heterogeneous professional workforce within NM is a major concern for the BNMS which is further fragmented owing to much of the PET-CT workforce in the UK working for PFI contract holders. Because of this dispersion BNMS has, on its own, been unable to determine accurate numbers of NM professionals that will be needed in the future in order to ensure future service continuity. Further major worries are that there is now no BSc. in Nuclear Medicine Technology available in England for direct entry to NM since the University of Cumbria closed its degree course this year and because the recruitment of qualified NM Technologists has all but stopped from mainland Europe.

Some of the Radiographers provided by implementation of the Richards’ Report will eventually choose to undertake further education to work in the speciality but this will usually be several years after qualification and the time lag of several years to bring these professionals on stream means a further threat to NHS service provision. In order to ensure that we will train sufficient numbers of NM staff we need to know what the initial numbers are and for this reason we require this data from the Department for Health and Social Care.

How many NM Technologists are employed in each of the home nations? How many are employed in PET-CT?

How many specialist NM Radiographers are qualified and working in each of the home nations? How many are employed in PET-CT?

How many of these professionals are over the age of 60 and therefore will need replacing when they retire in the next few years?

See the Department of Health response below:

Letter from the Department of Health 12.08.2021