Consultant hiring freezes in cancer care have doubled since 2025, college warns

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By Daniel Pye

Consultant recruitment freezes by trusts struggling to balance their books is creating “immediate and long-term risks” for cancer patient care, a medical college has warned.

In an open letter to health minister Karin Smyth, senior figures in the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) urged the government to stop hospitals preventing senior doctor recruitment in cancer centres and radiologist departments.

There are “real concerns” there may be no substantive consultant posts available for resident doctors when they qualify, the letter stated.

Despite the NHS “consistently failing to meet both diagnostic waiting time and cancer treatment targets,” the letter stated, recruitment freezes were imposed on more than half (57%) of England’s specialist cancer treatment centres – more than double the previous year.

In the same period more than a third (39%) of radiology departments in England had a recruitment freeze which is also more than double the previous year, the letter stated.