CANCER patients are waiting longer for assessment and treatment because hospital trusts have frozen staff recruitment to save money — while wasting hundreds of millions on outsourcing, according to a report released today.

The workforce census by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) found that Britain is facing a severe shortfall of specialists, including 1,962 consultant radiologists and 185 clinical oncologists.

The shortfall is the “main factor” behind the “persistent failure” to meet cancer waiting times targets and delays to reporting scan results, the RCR said.