Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the findings of the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership’s <i>National Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Audit Programme: National supplementary report</i> published on 1 February.

The pattern identified in the report was increasing number of admissions and readmission together with reduced length of stay and improved mortality. This reflects improvements in acute care for acute episodes in a long term condition for which there is no ultimate cure. The established pattern, backed up by epidemiological data, now appears to be one of increasingly frequent hospital admissions in the last years of life.

The Government expects National Health Service commissioners and providers to use the report, along with other evidence, to continue to improve services.