Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help (a) increase the dermatology workforce and (b) ensure that patients with inflammatory skin conditions can access timely specialist care.

Starting from August 2022, Health Education England has increased the number of training posts in dermatology which will help support the dermatology workforce. In November 2022 there were 1,233 full-time equivalent doctors in the dermatology specialism working in hospital and community health settings, representing an increase of 65 since the previous year.

Alongside this expansion, in September 2022 NHS England produced guidance on referral optimisation for people with skin conditions to ensure that patients with inflammatory skin conditions can access timely specialist care. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/B1149-referral-optimisation-for-people-with-skin-conditions.pdf