It is not possible to supply a figure for the number of nurses there are within the national health service working in breast care as this information is not collected centrally. A break down of nurses by area of work is shown in the following tables.
Headcount 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 All areas of work 301,253 300,467 304,563 310,142 316,752 330,535 346,537 364,692 375,371 381,257 374,538 376,737 Acute, elderly and general 160,165 159,934 161,980 165,643 170,261 177,904 187,439 201,184 203,358 205,611 204,112 205,601 Paediatric 15,520 15,341 16,266 16,689 16,922 17,640 18,014 18,437 18,917 19,178 18,634 18,923 Maternity 28,916 28,409 29,174 29,258 29,304 29,177 29,524 30,776 32,056 32,072 32,103 32,919 Psychiatry 38,827 39,109 38,141 38,999 39,529 41,539 42,654 44,728 47,390 48,553 48,478 48,499 Learning disabilities 12,105 11,111 10,736 9,923 9,497 9,776 9,550 8,950 8,656 8,824 7,583 7,618 Community services 44,914 45,898 47,601 48,972 50,481 52,401 53,814 57,588 61,559 63,257 62,343 61,997 Education staff 806 665 665 658 758 903 985 1,147 1,346 1,336 1,285 1,180
Full-time equivalent 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 All areas of work 248,070 246,011 247,238 250,651 256,276 266,171 279,287 291,925 301,877 307,744 307,447 307,628 Acute, elderly and general 130,996 130,462 131,271 133,981 138,120 144,597 154,057 162,671 166,098 168,759 169,284 168,912 Paediatric 12,591 12,590 13,084 13,383 13,644 13,997 14,546 14,825 15,258 15,412 15,302 15,416 Maternity 23,192 22,776 23,059 22,919 22,776 22,684 23,043 23,758 24,463 24,750 24,961 25,654 Psychiatry 35,444 35,296 34,627 34,974 35,804 36,973 38,176 39,383 41,585 42,529 42,716 42,602 Learning disabilities 10,714 9,883 9,329 8,775 8,398 8,440 8,323 7,824 7,526 7,367 6,767 6,593 Community services 34,399 34,422 35,299 36,058 36,871 38,221 39,302 41,850 44,989 46,917 47,338 47,448 Education staff 733 582 568 562 662 760 819 968 1,140 1,119 1,079 1,004 Notes: 1. Totals may not equal the sum of component parts due to rounding and the inclusion of unclassifiable staff. 2. More accurate validation this year means that in 2006 9,858 duplicate records were identified and removed from the non-medical census. 3. The impact of duplicates on full-time equivalent has been minimal with the removal of 507.
This information is not collected centrally. It is for cancer networks to work in partnership with strategic health authorities, national health service trusts and postgraduate deaneries to put in place a sustainable process to assess, plan and review their work force needs. Commissioners should benchmark their local clinical nurse specialist (CNS) provision against similar primary care trusts and take action where the CNS work force is found to be insufficient.