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There has been an expansion of 15 specialty training posts in Clinical Oncology (and an additional 6 in Medical Oncology) since 2014. The 2025 expansion process is currently underway and will conclude later this year. This will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, with the overall aim of ensuring Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand .

Consultant oncologists have increased by 50%, from 102 headcount ten years ago (March 2014) to 153 headcount in March 2024 .

Internal Medicine Training is a pre-requisite for Clinical Oncology. The Scottish Government has provided funding for the creation of 64 additional Internal Medicine Specialty Training posts since 2021 in order to bolster the front-end supply into oncology.

The Scottish Government is also working with NHS Education for Scotland to increase visibility of careers in clinical oncology.

An Oncology Workforce Review was completed in 2023 with a proposal for an Oncology Transformation Programme for Scotland.

As part of the transformation programme, an Oncology Task and Finish Group was established in May 2024 to support oncology services by planning, on a population basis across Scotland, a sustainable operating model to improve access to safe, quality services. One of its aims is to reduce unwarranted variation in and inequity of access to oncology services.

A new Clinical Oncology training rotation in NHS Highland is also being explored in an effort to make the North of Scotland a more attractive place to work.

A number of actions are already underway to improve recruitment into clinical and medical oncology. For example, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are:

• Increasing front-end supply by funding the creation of additional posts in Internal Medicine Training (IMT), which is a pre-requisite for both clinical and medical oncology (42 IMT posts added in 2021 and 22 in 2024).
• Using these IMT posts to increase exposure to oncology during the early years of a doctors career.
• Exploring the feasibility of a regional rotational training post to attract applicants to vacant posts in the North and East of Scotland.
• Providing ongoing support to trainees wishing to enter oncology training through alternative routes.
• Delivering (a) oncology-themed national training days in all regions for IMT and Foundation trainees, and (b) ‘roadshows’ in all regions to promote oncology as a specialism.

In addition, the Training Programme Directors (TPD) for clinical and medical oncology within NES sit on the respective Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) Specialty Advisory Committees (SAC). The SACs then feed into the relevant Specialty Training Board (STB) within NES. The TPD for medical oncology is a member of the Association of Cancer Physicians (ACP). The TPD for both medical and clinical oncology feed back to the RCR with relevant issues arising from the STB. The RCR and ACP both had major involvement in designing and implementing the new oncology curricula, which is now fully embedded.

The Chief Medical Officer met with the Royal College of Radiologists on 14 December 2023 and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer met with them on 16 May 2024.

The Scottish Government recognises the need for active measures to improve retention across the health and social care workforce, which is essential to ensure confidence in longer-term modelling of a sustainable future medical workforce to meet future clinical service demand.

One of the 11 ambitions in the Cancer Strategy is for a Sustainable and Skilled Workforce with actions under 5 pillars. There are six actions being taken forward under ‘nurture’ to aid retention of staff.

For example, retiring employees who wish to continue in employment that is suitable to them and the service are supported by the Retire and Return provisions in the NHSScotland Retirement Policy . In addition, the NHSScotland Flexible work location policy and NHSScotland Flexible work pattern policy provide staff with a range of flexible working options to help them to balance their lifestyle whilst maintaining and promoting the best possible service to our patients and service users, supporting retention.

The Scottish Government (SG) has funded the creation of 68 additional training places in clinical radiology since 2014 in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The number of funded posts in clinical oncology has also increased by 15 over the same period. These additional posts, and indeed all training posts for trainee doctors, are funded in full by SG. This approach is referenced in the Royal College of Radiologists 2023 workforce census report:

“In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the statutory education body provides funding for the full training place, with health boards and trusts paying on-call or any additional payments”.

The Scottish Government has funded the creation of 68 additional training places in clinical radiology since 2014 in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The number of funded posts in clinical oncology has also increased by 15 over the same period. The SSoTTG is currently undertaking its annual review of medical training establishments and will be submitting recommendations later in the year for expansion taking place in 2025. This annual review will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, to ensure that Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand for consultants. Recommendations to expand are informed by medical workforce modelling undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland.

Patient data is typically held on the IT infrastructure of the Health Board delivering, or having previously delivered, the individuals care. This can include data initially generated by other Health Boards or health and care organisations that is transferred to the NHS Dumfries & Galloway (e.g. referral letters) in order for them to deliver the best quality care.

Only data held on the NHS Dumfries and Galloway IT infrastructure was stolen during this cyber-attack.

The patient data stolen during this incident was contained within the NHS D&G IT infrastructure. The vast majority of data related to people who are currently registered as NHS Dumfries and Galloway patients. However, some people currently registered as patients elsewhere will also have interacted with NHS Dumfries and Galloway in recent years, for example receiving treatment while travelling or on holiday, and it is possible that information relating to them may also have been stolen.

In addition, data controlled by National Records of Scotland was also stolen. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-27770 on 22 May 2024 for more information. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/questions-and-answers .

Patient data is typically held on the IT infrastructure of the Health Board delivering, or having previously delivered, the individuals care. This can include data initially generated by other Health Boards or health and care organisations that is transferred to the NHS Dumfries & Galloway (e.g. referral letters) in order for them to deliver the best quality care.

Only data held on the NHS Dumfries and Galloway IT infrastructure was stolen during this cyber-attack.

The investigation into this attack is on-going, and will take several more months to conclude, as such it is not currently possible to determine.