Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that national guidelines on asthma care are implemented; what data his Department is gathering to improve asthma care; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
NHS England is taking a number of actions to improve the care and management of people with asthma.
It is supporting clinical commissioning groups to improve out of hospital treatment for those with asthma by giving doctors more control over the commissioning of asthma services and improving information links between general practitioners and hospitals. The implementation of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) asthma quality standard, which sets out what good quality care looks like, will also raise the standard of care people with asthma receive.
The National Clinical Director for Respiratory Disease, Professor Mike Morgan, is responsible for working across all five domains of the NHS Outcomes Framework in NHS England in tackling asthma issues, and Dr Jacqueline Cornish, the National Clinical Director for children, young people and transition to adulthood, is working with the Strategic Clinical Networks for maternity, neonates and children and young people, to improve clinical outcomes for children and young people with asthma. NHS England also continues to work with Asthma UK and professional groups in both primary and secondary care to improve outcomes for all those with asthma. It is also working to ensure that everyone with a long-term condition is offered a personalised care plan and an asthma action plan should form part of that.
In terms of data collection on asthma, the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership is considering with NHS England, a national clinical audit of asthma services across the country against NICE quality standards for asthma.
