Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of specialist prostate care (a) nurses and (b) doctors in the NHS.

Urology is the branch of medicine that includes surgical and medical diseases of the prostate.

Since 2010, the number of full-time equivalent doctors working in urology has increased by 26%, rising from 1,602 in June 2010 to 2,024 in June 2019.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council do not require a specific post-registration education programme to be undertaken for a Registered Nurse to become a specialist prostate nurse.

Individual organisations develop registered nurses into this role locally, with support from Local Workforce Action Boards and are responsible for creating the number of specialist prostate nurse posts they require, based on population need.

The interim NHS People Plan puts the workforce at the heart of the National Health Service and will ensure we have the staff needed to deliver high quality care. In advance of publishing the final People Plan, the NHS will establish a national programme board to address geographical and specialty shortages in medicine.

Decisions about the NHS workforce in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are a matter for the devolved administrations of those countries.