Skip to main content

Breasts: Health Services

Volume 481: debated on Tuesday 28 October 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many breast care nurses are working in the NHS. (230276)

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.

Table 3a: NHS hospital and community staff: qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff by area of work 1996 to 2007, England as at 30 September each year

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

Table 3b: NHS HCHS: Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff by area of work 1996 to 2007, England as at 30 September each year

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.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many breast cancer patients have no access to a breast care nurse. (230277)

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.