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 the NHS Long Term Plan will focus on improving the respiratory health of people in (a) Redbridge, (b) Ilford South constituency and (c) England.

The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts the National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving respiratory health in all parts of the country. More tests and scans delivered in the community, better joint working between services, and greater use of apps and wearable technology will all help people manage their long-term conditions, including respiratory conditions, closer to home. Moving from sickness to prevention will help us reduce the causes of the biggest killers, and provide treatment earlier, rather than only intervening when conditions deteriorate.

In advance of the 10-Year Health Plan, NHS England has established 13 respiratory clinical networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.

As part of the work to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, we have launched a significant public engagement process and we would encourage all those with an interest in respiratory health care services to take part in that process, so that we can fully understand what is not working as well as it should and what the potential solutions are. More information on the process is available at the following link:

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/