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 (a) detect and diagnose lung disease earlier and (b) support people with chronic respiratory conditions to manage their health.

The Government is committed to improving the lives of those with respiratory disease.

Respiratory disease is a clinical priority within the recently published NHS Long Term Plan. This has the overarching objective of improving outcomes for people with respiratory disease. The Long Term Plan sets out how the National Health Service will take action in a number of areas. This includes expanding programmes that support earlier diagnosis of respiratory disease including the pioneering lung health checks trialled in Manchester and Liverpool; increasing access to proven treatments such as pulmonary rehabilitation (a structured exercise and education programme for those with chronic respiratory disease and breathlessness); and improving support for those with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma to receive and use the correct medications.

The NHS Long Term Plan will build on a range of existing national initiatives focussed on the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory disease, some of which are detailed below.

The NHS Outcomes Framework sets out the Department’s priority areas for the NHS, and includes reducing deaths from respiratory disease as a key indicator.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes quality standards that define best practice and areas in need of improvement for a range of respiratory illnesses including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, with the aim of raising the standard of care that people with these conditions receive. NICE quality standards cover both diagnosis and treatment.

The NHS RightCare COPD pathway is being rolled out nationally through clinical commissioning groups and defines the core components of an optimal service for people with COPD. This includes timely access to pulmonary rehabilitation as part of the optimal treatment pathway.

The Department and NHS England are supportive of the National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme. Launched in March 2018 and led by the Royal College of Physicians, this programme aims to improve quality of care, services, and clinical outcomes for patients with asthma and COPD by collecting and providing data on a range of indicators.

Furthermore, NHS England commissions treatments for rare or complex respiratory conditions through the Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group, which is chaired by Professor Mike Morgan. This includes specialist treatment for pulmonary hypertension, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and severe asthma among other conditions.

The Department also funds research on respiratory illnesses through the National Institute for Health Research.