Radiographers call for resources
A motion from the SoR Society of Radiographers calling on the government to increase funding for radiotherapy, diagnostic imaging services and oncology commissioning was adopted by delegates to September’s TUC Congress.
The SoR has called for more resources for pioneering treatments such as proton beam therapy which has been in the spotlight with the recent case of five-year-old Ashya King. Ashya was removed by his parents from a hospital in England in order to receive the treatment overseas.
Paul Moloney, the SoR’s trade union and industrial relations manager, said there was “an urgent need to provide proton therapy treatment here in the UK where we have the skills, so that patients and their families do not have to travel abroad for treatment that not only saves lives but is also cost-effective”.
The SOR warned that the UK was well behind other countries in providing such treatments. Proton therapy will not be available in the UK until 2018, 10 years after it was introduced in Germany.