Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to (a) include spirometry and FeNO testing in the GP contract and (b) to provide dedicated funding through a Directed Enhanced Service.
Currently there are no plans to include spirometry and FeNO testing in the GP contract. In many areas, spirometry and FeNO testing services are delivered through Local Enhanced Services (LESs), which are funded separately to global sum payments.
Integrated care boards, as commissioners of primary care, are responsible for commissioning LESs which practices can opt into, which vary in scope and funding to fit the needs of local areas. In areas where spirometry and FeNO testing are not commissioned through a LES, it is the commissioner’s responsibility to ensure these services are available to patients.