A joined-up workforce response to cancer and radiology pressures in a large acute trust
A phased deep-dive programme covering cancer services, radiology and ENT - identifying the workforce shifts needed to sustain elective pathways.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Multi-speciality workforce deep dive
Cancer, radiology and ENT services across a large acute trust
Phased engagement across multiple financial years
Pathway pressure that no single service could resolve on its own
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust faced sustained pressure across its cancer pathways, its radiology capacity and its ENT service - three services connected by shared workforce, shared equipment and shared referral pathways. Each service had its own operational pressures. The trust needed to understand which of them were structural, which were driven by workforce supply, and which could realistically be addressed through skill-mix, role design and pathway redesign inside the year.
A structured HEE STAR-based deep dive in each service, linked at trust level
We ran a series of connected workforce deep dives using the HEE STAR framework - one for cancer, one for radiology and one for ENT. Each deep dive combined activity and workforce analysis, structured clinician engagement, and options appraisal against skill-mix, capacity and pathway redesign.
Rather than treat each service in isolation, we brought the three sets of findings together at trust level - so the executive team could see the interdependencies (radiology capacity is a cancer constraint; ENT theatre time depends on radiology diagnostics; workforce moves in one service reshape supply in the others) and design a coherent response across them.
How the programme was delivered
Cancer deep dive
Phase 1
HEE STAR-based deep dive across the cancer pathway, quantifying workforce constraints and identifying skill-mix and role-design options across MDT working, oncology and site-specialist teams.
Radiology deep dive
Phase 2
Deep dive on radiology workforce, including reporting capacity, radiographer skill-mix and interventional radiology - modelled against activity forecasts and referral demand.
ENT deep dive
Phase 3
Workforce and pathway analysis across ENT, connecting activity, theatre utilisation, outpatient conversion and workforce supply into a single operating picture.
Trust-level integration
Synthesis
A synthesis of findings across all three services, presented to the executive team, with an integrated workforce response and a clear sequencing of the actions the trust could take across the three services together.
What changed
Integrated view
The trust moved from three separate service-level workforce conversations to a single integrated view of cancer, radiology and ENT as a connected system.
Prioritised actions
A sequenced set of workforce actions across the three services, prioritised by impact on elective pathways and by feasibility inside the year.
Repeatable method
The HEE STAR-based deep-dive method was left with the trust's internal workforce team, giving them a repeatable tool for future service reviews.
Services delivered
Workforce deep dive (HEE STAR) · Skill-mix and role design · Elective pathway workforce planning · Multi-service workforce integration
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