This depends on your local area.
At the ICB level, there are 3 different policies:
The Bucks Oxon Berks ICB has a complete ban on prescribing them since 2016.* Tough luck if you live there - you are getting substandard care in this respect which does not conform to NICE recommendations. No other ICB bans them.
In some ICBs, GPs can prescribe them.
Evidence has shown they are twice as likely to be used successfully if the patient attends a pump clinic to be shown how to use it. Hence, some other ICBs say it can only be prescribed by the GP when authorised by a hospital following attendance at a pump clinic.
Some GPs refuse to prescribe them even when told to do so by the hospital and allowed to do so by their ICB.
In a few cases, hospitals give them out after prostatectomy, but there's no such automated process for oncology patients (who are the majority of patients).
*As some of you know, I've been working through the relevant PPG (patient participation group) for 3 years to get this fixed in the Bucks Oxon Berks ICB. I get questions from patients wondering how it's going. We finally thought we were getting somewhere. However, at the last minute, the PPG completely screwed up and ensured there was no patient representation. The result was the report which went to the ICB was missing all the input we'd wanted to present to them, and missed the majority of cases where a pump should be offered. I cannot tell you how furious I was with the PPG, but so far, they have shown no indication of attempting to fix this. I'm really sorry for all the patients this ICB and PPG is letting down.