FOI release

Lung Cancer Consultants / Doctors cover protocol.

Case reference FOI2026/01964

Received 19 May 2026

Published 19 August 2026

Request

1-The total number of Consultants clinic appointments in oncology/radiotherapy that were delayed or cancelled, highlighting unfilled appointments or vacancies due to staff leave (e.g., annual leave, sickness and Cancer Consultants reducing their clinic activity) between June 2nd 2023 and August 28th 2023.

Staffing Ratios: Planned vs.actual Oncologist/Radiographers clinic appointments ratios for this date.
Shift Cover:Whether specific clinic appointments were covered by regular staff,bank staff,or agency cover.

2-Copies of the department's contingency or holiday cover policies/rota management plans that were active during this timeframe.

3-Meeting minutes or internal risk assessments discussing oncology/radiotherapy staffing levels, shortages, or holiday cover during this period.
Please provide this information in an email.

Response

Vacancy: During this time period there was a vacant post in the lung clinical oncologist team. This gap was covered by one of the OUH consultants taking up an additional clinic per week from 18^th May 2023 on top of their existing job plan. This vacancy was filled when a new starter joined the lung clinical oncology team on the 2^nd October 2023.
Planned annual leave: During the period 2^nd June to 28^th August 2023 12 Lung Clinical Oncology clinics were stood down due to leave. Annual leave is factored in to the service model so this was not a drop in activity compared to the annualised activity plan.

Sickness: On 9^th June 2023, it was agreed that one of the consultants would reduce their clinic workload activity due to health related concerns. Starting 29^th June 2023, all empty Thursday clinics were therefore blocked. Patients that had already booked up to 6^th July 2023 went ahead.
A supernumerary consultant on an honorary contract with the Trust was also used to support activity and deliver clinics where possible.

During this time period, an average of 3 OUH lung clinical oncology clinics were run per week. For each clinic template the standard model is 2 new patients (NP) and 7 follow-up (FU) appointments.

As mentioned above, an additional consultant was brought into the team from May 2023 onwards to cover for a vacancy in order to sustain this volume of activity.

2-Copies of the department's contingency or holiday cover policies/rota management plans that were active during this timeframe.

As per the Trust’s Annual leave policy, annual leave should be requested at least six weeks in advance and is then approved through the electronic leave system. Consultants ensure that appropriate consultant cover is available for clinical advice and queries during periods of leave.

3-Meeting minutes or internal risk assessments discussing oncology/radiotherapy staffing levels, shortages, or holiday cover during this period.
Please provide this information in an email.

The Service Manager and Clinical Lead meet weekly on a Wednesday at 12pm to review clinic wait times. In this meeting issues are highlighted and addressed where possible. For example, where waiting times exceed four weeks for a sustained period, additional clinics are arranged to help reduce waiting times. These meetings are not minuted.

The job plan system SARD can provide evidence of the additional lung clinic that was added into an existing consultant’s job plan from May 2023 until November 2023 to mitigate the vacancy.

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

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