Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Wednesday 17th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

Like so many speakers before me, I will begin by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Weaver Vale (Mike Amesbury) for bringing forward this important debate on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and on World COPD Day. World COPD Day is intended to raise awareness of the fact that this condition is chronic, because it is long term and does not go away; it is obstructive, because the airways are narrowed, making breathing difficult; and it is pulmonary—it affects the lungs.

The theme of World COPD Day is

“Healthy Lungs—Never More Important”.

This year’s aim is to highlight that the challenge of COPD remains, despite the ongoing global covid pandemic. Even as we continue to battle covid, COPD remains a leading cause of death worldwide. It is a terrible condition affecting millions, and the pandemic and long covid have highlighted this condition, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

The condition cannot be cured or reversed but, with treatment, it can be managed so that it does not severely limit daily activities. However, we also know that despite treatment, COPD can deteriorate, eventually having a significant and debilitating effect on quality of life and leading to life-threatening challenges.

As we have heard today from almost every speaker, while the main cause of COPD is smoking, some cases are caused by long-term exposure to harmful dust or fumes. Worryingly, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence found in 2016 that an estimated 3 million people have COPD in the UK, of whom 2 million are undiagnosed. There are an estimated 140,000 cases in Scotland, with another estimated 200,000 people undiagnosed.

The Scottish Government are taking action through the development of their respiratory care action plan, which sets out priorities to support the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of respiratory conditions. It is vital that those with these conditions can access safe, effective and person-centred care, treatment and support. To that end, the Scottish Government’s respiratory care action plan for Scotland, published in March, outlines the strategy for improving prevention, diagnosis, care and treatment for those living with respiratory conditions such as COPD.

The Scottish Government are working with partners across health and social care and the third sector, as well as with people with lived experience, to develop an implementation programme, which will make clear the funding commitments that will be brought forward to promote the plan. Important work is also going on to learn more about COPD, such as work with the EU—which provided €7.7 million of funding for the project last year—to discover why, strangely, Stranraer in Scotland has higher than average rates of the condition, despite average smoking rates.

The Scottish Government will move forward with the implementation of the respiratory care action plan for Scotland over the course of this Parliament and continue to tackle smoking in Scotland. I pay tribute to the Scottish Parliament’s cross-party group on lung health, established and so ably chaired by Emma Harper MSP. Lobbying by the cross-party group was instrumental in the publication of the respiratory care action plan.

We all understand the correlation between COPD and smoking, but despite the UK having one of the lowest smoking rates in Europe, smoking leads to a significant number of deaths across the UK every year, including through COPD. However, we have come far in the fight against smoking. For example, around 15% of UK adults are smokers, which is one of the lowest rates in Europe. The figure is slightly higher in Scotland, at 19%, so we have a wee bit more work to do.

We must bear in mind that there is a higher concentration of smokers in socially disadvantaged communities. Of course, we know that there is a clear link between poverty and health outcomes. That helps us to understand why 35% of adults in the most deprived areas are smokers, compared with 10% in the least deprived areas. Smoking accounted for 16% of all deaths in Scotland in 2018—around 10,000 deaths a year—and the figures in England are much the same. Scotland’s target is to be smoke-free by 2034, with smoke-free defined as 5% or less of the adult population being smokers. To that end, a new tobacco strategy will be published in the next parliamentary Session in Scotland.

We continue to make progress with smoking rates, which have fallen 9% since 2003, but of course we are all want the pace of that decline to continue to increase. Scotland was the first part of the United Kingdom to prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces, in 2006. That measure was introduced in the Scottish Parliament by a certain MSP called Kenneth Gibson. The rest of the UK followed in 2007. Although the measure was controversial at the time, the banning of smoking in enclosed public spaces is now accepted and is the undisputed norm. Such measures can help us as we strive to help people live healthier lives and give up smoking.

I wish to end by paying tribute to the British Heart Foundation, which does so much valuable work to promote the importance of clean air and healthy lungs. It is appropriate to do that on World COPD Day. All year round, the British Heart Foundation works to raise awareness of this condition, to ensure that everyone with COPD has access to the care and information that they need to manage their condition well and to ensure that those of us who do not have the misfortune to suffer from it are more aware of it in our communities.