Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the diagnosis of respiratory conditions.

The Government has committed to delivering three big shifts that our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving respiratory health in all parts of the country.

Through our community diagnostic centres we are building capacity for respiratory testing and enabling people to get diagnosed closer to home. 101 community diagnostic centres across the country now offer out of hours services, 12 hours a day and seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital diagnostic tests around busy working lives.

This is alongside action being taken to expand capacity and improve the quality of pulmonary rehabilitation services to support patients living with respiratory conditions. We are also taking action to reduce the causes of respiratory conditions, for instance by enabling a smoke free generation and cross Government action to improve air quality.