Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Getting it Right First Time Programme National Specialty Report on Cardiology published in February 2021, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of heart failure specialist nurses to between three and four per 100,000 population.

Employers are responsible for ensuring the appropriate the number of heart failure specialist nurse posts, based on population need. It is expected that local organisation will develop registered nurses into this role with regional funding from Health Education England (HEE).

HEE is developing Advanced Clinical Practice, with a national multi professional framework specifying core capabilities. Organisations are being supported to understand this level of practice and how the workforce can be developed into Advanced Clinical Practice level roles.