SCoR criticises lack of recognition for work of
therapy staff
 The Society has produced a detailed response to the Cancer Care in the NHS report published by Reform earlier this year. Whilst there is much that the SCoR agrees with, the response says “there are questions that we would like to raise, and concerns about some of the content of the report.”
One issue that the Society’s document highlights is that Reform “makes little reference to the excellent work that is being undertaken by professionals in the service to minimise waits and explore ways of managing capacity and demand through redesigning services, in order to provide the best possible service to patients with the limited resources available. We feel that this is a serious omission within the report as it may have the effect of de-motivating staff whose efforts should be properly recognised.”
The Society criticises the Reform proposal to increase capacity through outsourcing of services to the independent sector.
“This needs to be better supported with evidence. Experiences in diagnostic radiology would seem to indicate that outsourcing is very far from a panacea in terms of rapidly increasing capacity. We specifically have concerns that:
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Independent sector outsourcing would compete directly with the NHS for staffing
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There would be little pressure on independent sector providers to employ the most efficient best practice in terms of staff usage and service design
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That the logistics of employing an independent sector provider would not be adequately thought through in terms of proper clinical governance procedures
“There is no reason why independent sector involvement in the delivery of cancer services cannot be introduced positively provided there is no adverse effect on NHS services and that working practices are properly integrated. The apparently arbitrary figure of 30 per cent independent provision raises suspicions that the details of implementation and the challenges that this would involve have not been adequately thought through.”
Click here for the PDF of the Reform report, Cancer Care in the NHS, and click here for the SCoR response document.
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