World Asthma Day

Ayoub Khan Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr) (Ind)]

It is a privilege to speak under your chairship, Dr Huq. I am deeply grateful to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing this debate, which is crucial—not only for my constituents of Birmingham Perry Barr and the city of Birmingham, but nationally and internationally.

Last week, we marked World Asthma Day—a moment of reflection that should fill us with not only resolve but deep discomfort. Asthma is one of the most common health conditions in the UK, as the hon. Member for Strangford mentioned, affecting over 7 million people, yet all too often it is also one of the most fatally overlooked. Every eight hours, someone in this country dies from an asthma attack. In 90% of those cases, their death means a life cut short, a family devastated and a future lost due to what should have been a manageable condition. Such people are dying not because we lack treatments but because our holistic healthcare system is failing them.

This crisis is particularly felt by my constituents in Birmingham Perry Barr. Ours is a proud industrial city, but that legacy comes at a cost. Poor air quality continues to fuel respiratory illnesses, and too many of my constituents are left battling the consequences. I received a deeply moving letter from a constituent who has lived with asthma for years. Despite managing her condition to the best of her ability, she suffers asthma attacks constantly, leaving her in constant agony. Unfortunately, her words echo the experiences of many up and down the country. Let us be clear: asthma may be common, but it is no less deadly for that, and no less deserving of urgent, focused attention.

I commend the tireless work of people such as Kim Douglas, who is a constituent of mine, after the tragic loss of her three-year-old son George to undiagnosed and untreated asthma. She founded the George Coller Memorial Fund in his memory. That foundation is now calling for two vital reforms that could save lives and ease the burden on our health system. First, it is calling for inhalers to be made free of charge for all patients; 57% of those who end up in emergency care for asthma have skipped their medication because they could not afford the prescription, and almost half missed appointments out of fear that they would not be able to pay for the medication afterwards. In one of the richest countries in the world, that is simply indefensible. A child’s ability to breathe should never depend on their parents’ ability to pay.

Secondly, the foundation is calling for all emergency inhalers to be fitted with a dose counter. Inhalers are often relied on in moments of life or death—in emergencies—yet nearly three quarters of patients cannot tell when their inhaler is empty. They go on using them, trusting them, only to find when it matters most that they offer no relief. For too many families, that avoidable failure has had devastating consequences.

Those two simple changes could prevent thousands of hospital admissions every year and, importantly, they could save lives. I ask the Minister whether she will meet with me and the George Coller Memorial Fund organisers to discuss these vital recommendations? Will she commit to a 10-year respiratory health plan that finally treats this crisis with the urgency it demands?