Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has a plan to increase the number of (a) adult and (b) paediatric full time equivalent (i) fully qualified grade one rheumatology consultants and (ii) rheumatology specialist nurses in England over the next (A) 12 months, (B) five years and (C) 15 years.

No specific estimate has been made of adult or paediatric consultant rheumatologist vacancies. There are currently 1,153 full time equivalent doctors working in the specialty of rheumatology. This is 142 or 14% more than in 2019. In 2022/23 and 2023/24, Health Education England, now part of NHS England, increased the number of specialist rheumatology training posts by 12 and five respectively.

The Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published on 30 June 2023 aims to double the number of medical school places in England, taking the total number of places to 10,000 by 2028/29 and 15,000 by 2031/32. The LTWP commits to an adequate growth in foundation placement capacity, as those taking up these new places begin to graduate, and a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the National Health Servuce in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for rheumatologists and other medical specialties.

The LTWP also sets out an ambition to almost double the number of adult nursing training places, taking the total number of places to nearly 28,000 by 2028/29 and nearly 38,000 by 2031/32. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for nurses specialising in rheumatology.