Asthma is set to become a higher priority for the Department of Health in England with the publishing of a National Strategy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which contains a chapter on adult asthma.
 
Asthma UK has campaigned long and hard for the formulation of standards for asthma care in England and across the UK. There are already national standards in place or being implemented in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Towards the end of last year a series of consultation events on the National Strategy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) took place across England. These were organised by Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation with the Department of Health and gave people with asthma the opportunity to share their views about healthcare.
 
Asthma UK’s Chief Executive Neil Churchill said: ‘The launch of a national strategy for COPD, which contains a chapter on the care of adult asthma, represents an important stepping stone towards national standards for asthma in England.

‘Asthma UK is currently working with PCTs across England to identify ways to improve care and reduce emergency admissions as tragically in the UK over 200 people a day are rushed to hospital with life-threatening asthma attacks. We believe that three-quarters of these admissions and up to 90% of deaths could be avoided with the right care and management but a lack of national standards has meant that huge variations within the health service puts lives at risk. The new strategy aims to achieve a 20% reduction in unscheduled hospital admissions, resulting in savings of around £200m a year and making a big difference to people’s quality of life.
 
‘Whilst we are delighted that this first step has been taken, for this and future strategies to be effective the views of people with asthma need to be heard. We are encouraging all our supporters to tell the Department of Health what they think about this document'.

For more information on Asthma UK and to have your say, please visit www.asthma.org.uk