Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to end deaths from asthma.

In the initial report, Major conditions strategy: case for change and our strategic framework, the Department developed a strategic framework on how our approach to health and care delivery can evolve to improve outcomes and better meet the needs of 6 major health conditions, including those with chronic respiratory disease (CRD). As part of the overall strategy for CRD management, we have incentivised primary care, through the general practice contract, to monitor and provide support for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, including through annual reviews, a personalised action plan, appropriate inhaler optimisation and advice on smoking cessation.

NHS England published the NHS Long Term Plan in 2019, which set out the commitments and objectives for the National Health Service for the next 10 years, in relation to CRD. NHS England is working with a range of partners to improve outcomes across the care pathway. This includes supporting local systems to offer NHS funded tobacco treatment services, building on the £2.3 billion investment in additional diagnostic capacity and the establishment of Community Diagnostic Centres; working with key partners to introduce a range of resources and measures that promote high quality and low carbon inhaler use; publishing a National Bundle of Care for Children and Young People with Asthma to support local systems with the management of asthma care and; widening and making access to specialist care through the delegation of specialist asthma services to ICB commissioning responsibilities.

NHS England is also focused on making more respiratory-specific data available to all regions and systems, ensuring there is greater consistency in the use of data and metrics to enable meaningful comparison, and to identify areas that may need additional support for improvement. NHS England also looks forward to the publication of the updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence asthma guideline later this year and will promote and support its implementation.