Nigel Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 21838, what estimate he has made of the cost of (a) training and (b) funding the extra 250 gastroenterologist and 200 non-medical endoscopists that will increase capacity for colonoscopy and endoscopy.

Ben Gummer

The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent produces an annual report which includes the costs of delivering National Health Service services. In doing so, the PSSRU assesses the total cost of training, including to the individual. A link to the latest report, published in March 2015 is included below.

http://www.pssru.ac.uk/project-pages/unit-costs/2014/

NHS trusts are responsible for ensuring that they have enough gastroenterologists to provide services to their patients. It will be for NHS providers to meet the employment costs of these staff.

Health Education England (HEE) has identified cancer and diagnostics as a priority area for 2016-17. HEE estimates that between £1 million and £1.5 million will be required to fund an additional 200 non-medical endoscopists by 2018.

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