Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that Cystic Fibrosis patients living in North London are not adversely impacted by the proposed removal of respiratory services from the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Any changes to services must follow established statutory processes, including full clinical engagement, consideration of patient impact, and public consultation where required. These processes are designed to ensure that any proposed reconfiguration maintains or improves the quality, safety, and accessibility of care for patients.

The Department expects NHS England and local commissioners to demonstrate that any changes will not adversely affect patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and that services continue to meet the national service specifications for specialised respiratory and CF care. This includes ensuring that specialist multidisciplinary CF teams remain accessible, that transition and continuity of care are safeguarded, and that travel times and capacity implications are assessed and mitigated.

Although the location of some services will change, there is no reduction in CF services capacity and no loss of specialist expertise as a result of this change. The full paediatric CF multidisciplinary team, including specialist clinicians, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists and dietitians, will continue to care for patients as a single specialist service.