Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help improve the 37% referral rates of eligible patients for pulmonary rehabilitation.

To improve referral rates for pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), NHS England has issued detailed guidance to integrated care boards on strengthening PR workforce capacity, ensuring safe staffing levels, and developing accessible service models to reduce health inequalities. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/pulmonary-rehabilitation-workforce/

NHS England has additionally recently published guidance on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) biologics that reiterates the need for PR to be taken into account when planning care for people with COPD. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/business-case-guidance-copd-biologics/