Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on referrals to secondary care and specialist asthma centres for people with asthma.
Specialist respiratory services for severe asthma have continued during the COVID-19 outbreak. In most cases people with severe asthma have been supported through remote consultations and biologic medication has been delivered at home. We have made £1 billion available to the National Health Service in 2021/22 to support the recovery of elective services, including referrals for patients with asthma. In secondary care, average waiting times have reduced by more than 40% since July 2020.