an investigation of human resource issues in radiotherapy physics services in the nhs, including an evaluation of the extent to which the management of human resources was strategic, was undertaken as part of mba level research by a radiotherapy clinical scientist. the research incorporated a telephone census of heads, or acting heads, of radiotherapy physics services. this census looked at the establishment and scale of radiotherapy physics services, issues around recruitment and flexibility, business management, strategy and strategy formation and human resource management practices.

a 96% response rate was obtained with 55 out of a potential population of 57 subjects participating in the survey. it was found that at the time of the survey, 11.0% of all radiotherapy physicist posts were vacant. this was due predominantly to recruitment difficulties. furthermore, 42% of radiotherapy physicists in post were relatively inexperienced, having spent less than 6 years in the discipline. eighty-seven per cent of services had re-graded radiotherapy physicist posts in order to recruit. additionally, 53% of services had changed their skill mix by increasing the ratio of technologists to physicists. fifty-nine per cent of those services did so because of difficulties in recruiting radiotherapy physicists.

whereas 38 respondents (69% of total) said they had a human resource strategy linked to the service's business strategy, only 12 respondents (22% of total) claimed to undertake appraisal and training needs analyses coupled with personal development plans and continuing professional development. relatively little succession planning was undertaken, and only 14 services (26% of total) had well-developed succession plans.

recommendations are made as to how human resource management in nhs radiotherapy physics services could be more strategic.