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The Health and Care Bill is being debated in the House of Lords this month. Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Now and Cancer52 have submitted a briefing to the House of Lords Health and Care Bill Committee requesting assurance that there is sufficient NHS workforce to address staff shortages and meet growing demand for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The briefing also includes requests to embed and support cancer research across the NHS and support key measures on the prevention of cancer in relation to smoking and obesity.
A coalition of almost 90 organisations, including Action Kidney Cancer, support the briefing to strengthen the NHS workforce and amend the Health and Care Bill to include:
- National assessment of current and future workforce numbers across health and care at least every two years
- Independent assessments set out in a report to parliament
- Assessment of future workforce needs must include projections for staff across health, social care and public health
- Assessment of staff numbers at the time of publication and projected staff numbers in 5, 10 and 20 years’ time based on the projected health and care needs of the population over the same time frames
- NHS and key health and care stakeholders to assist in the preparation of reports impacting staffing supply and demand requirements.
The briefing also includes suggestions around advertising of less healthy food to combat obesity, cancer outcomes targets, including early diagnosis and treatments, embedding research at the heart of the NHS supported by Integrated Care Systems, and the delivery of the Smokefree 2030 ambitions of the Government.
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