Our erectile dysfunction (ED) project aims to address the inequality and inequity of ED service provision across the UK and standardise the ED treatment and support services that are available so that all men get access to the best ED treatment and support after prostate cancer treatment regardless of where they live in the UK.
One of the main barriers that prevent men accessing appropriate treatment and support for ED is the current prescribing guidance. The current guidance on impotence prescribing - called the Health Services Circular on Impotence (HSC 1999/148) - was produced in 1999, and fails to provide current best practice for treating men with prostate cancer treatment induced erectile dysfunction (ED) and has only received piecemeal updates such as one last year which removed generic Viagra from the guidance and opened it up for wider NHS prescribing.
Prostate Cancer UK's FOI request data highlights areas where commissioners provide a good choice of ED services and areas that provide little or no ED service, resulting in a 'post code lottery' of ED service provision across the UK. In order to empower men to demand ED services from their health care providers, men need to be informed as to what ED services are available and what service provision is available from their local commissioners and NHS Trusts. This combined with the fact that often men and health care professionals can often find erectile dysfunction a difficult issue to approach.
Our Change Delivery team are leading our work to address these issues in variation and inequality of ED services across the UK. Our aim is for all prostate cancer patients to receive standardised, up to date ED care and support that provides them with the choice of ED support and services they need to return them to their pre-treatment baseline function regardless of where they live in the UK.
Here’s what we’ve done so far:
However, there is still work to be done for all men to receive support for erectile dysfunction and we will continue to push for the inequality of services to be addressed.
We will continue:
There are a number of ways you can get involved with our ED project and help improve care for men in your area. You could:
Just 13% of UK's local health commissioners provide adequate care for erectile dysfunction, reveal shocking new figures uncovered by Prostate Cancer UK, leaving thousands of men recovering from prostate cancer treatment struggling with the devastating effects on their health and relationships.