More help urged for victims of respiratory disease

AN MP is calling for more funding and better support for victims of chest disease, which is a top killer in South Yorkshire because of its strong mining and heavy industrial heritage.

Wentworth and Dearne’s John Healey has written to the Health Secretary after learning funding for Respiratory Programme Boards — specialist groups which work together to improve services and survival rates — will be stopped from March 2013.

In Rotherham one in seven deaths are from respiratory disease and the number of life years lost to asthma is 3.3 — twice the England average.

In Barnsley, chest disease is the third most common cause of death and the number of children with asthma being admitted to hospital in an emergency is significantly higher than the national average.

Mr Healey told Jeremy Hunt there had been improvements recently in South Yorkshire, but progress would falter without continued support.

He said in the letter: “One in five people across the country suffer from respiratory disease, with asthma alone affecting over five million people in the UK. This creates a huge drain on NHS resources.

“It is simply inexplicable and indefensible that respiratory disease is the only major therapy area to have been left out.

“Without specialist networks to drive clinical improvements, the progress on improving services and survival rates that we have made locally will falter, when we still remain far behind the European average.”

Mr Healey also called on the Secretary of State to appoint a National Clinical Director for respiratory diseases to oversee implementation of the Department of Health's COPD and Asthma Outcomes Strategy.

He added: “The decision to provide national leadership for respiratory conditions within the NHS Commissioning Board team could directly affect thousands of my constituents and could save thousands of lives.”