Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they are providing to pulmonary fibrosis patients whose treatment was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic some clinics were suspended but rapidly reinstated and recommendations to continue specialised clinic work in the second wave has been issued. Patients have continued to be both identified and treated.

While such lung function measurements are aerosol generating procedures, advice was circulated by The Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology to ensure such patients were investigated.

For those patients already receiving treatment the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines were relaxed to ensure continuation of the drugs and to allow initiation of new therapies.