We want people with lung conditions to live full and active lives and continue to do the things that are important to them and to their families.
Unfortunately, currently our healthcare system is set up to help when things go wrong, rather than to help people stay well. At an estimated cost of £250 million per year to the health budget just for treating lung conditions, there are significant sums to be saved by being proactive with healthcare. Whilst we look for cures for lung conditions, the evidence supporting self-management interventions is strong and they should be regarded as exemplar conditions to trial connected technologies to help people better self-manage their condition.
Education is key to improving understanding of lung conditions, helping deliver early diagnosis and good self-management. Having confident and informed people living with lung conditions at the centre of the decision making allows them to take ownership of their conditions, leading to reduced unplanned visits to GPs, visits to outpatient departments, hospital admissions and length of stays.
In Northern Ireland 33% of people are not receiving the basic care they need to manage their asthma well, contributing to over 2,000 emergency hospital admissions annually and over 30 asthma-related deaths. People who can self-manage and have an asthma action plan are better equipped to manage their symptoms and less likely to be admitted to hospital for their asthma.
Thousands of people across Northern Ireland have been affected by COVID-19 and a number of these will be impacted by Long COVID, requiring ongoing support. Northern Ireland needs long-term funding and staffing-level commitments for Long-COVID assessment centres, providing the respiratory, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, and emotional support for those living with this group of conditions.
The most cost-effective treatment for lung conditions, such as COPD, is pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), a programme of exercise and education for people with a long-term lung condition. Sadly, even before the pandemic too few patients had access to PR and often had to wait until their condition worsened before they could benefit. PR had to stop at the start of the pandemic and has been slow to restart.
We are calling for services like PR to be delivered digitally more often, especially during flu season, when at-risk groups choose to socialise less and minimise contact. Providing funding for digital innovation can help those who self-isolate during these periods to stay active and well.
The current Cost of Living crisis in Northern Ireland will disproportionately affect those who are living with lung conditions. More needs to be done to support households in NI. There is no price cap in place which means the cost of electricity, home heating oil and gas is subject to volatile price hikes. According to the Department of Finance , previously announced funding through Barnett Consequential contributions are now under threat, due to a lack of a functioning Stormont Assembly. NI’s lowest income households have on average £29 per week disposable income . We call on the Political Party’s in Northern Ireland to get back around the table and form a functioning Executive to allow local decision making and interventions to be reintroduced.
Those in need of rehabilitation should be able to access rehabilitation services where and when they need them. The Department of Health here needs to develop new strategy for rehabilitation care in Northern Ireland. Rehabilitation is essential in enabling people to live their lives to the full. Rehabilitation must be recognised as an unmissable part of rebuilding services and of Covid-19 recovery.
In addition, community rehabilitation reduces demand on the most expensive parts of the health service. Most emergency admissions are of people with long-term health conditions. Making community rehabilitation available to people before they are in crisis cuts demands on emergency care.
We are therefore calling on leaders and policy makers across government to take urgent action to ensure that community rehabilitation is given the support needed. A comprehensive strategic approach to meeting rehabilitation needs is required. We are asking political representatives to commit to the right to rehabilitation as a fundamental element of our health and care system and support it to develop so that everyone can access high quality rehabilitation.
Asthma + Lung UK Northern Ireland is calling for:
- Department of Health to establish the ‘Right to Rehab’ so everyone living with a lung condition can access appropriate rehabilitation depending on their needs
- The elimination of referral and criteria-based routes to rehabilitation moving towards “request for assistance” models that ensure no one is excluded from accessing support.
- Every person living with asthma to have a written asthma action plan, annual review, and inhaler technique check.
- Five Fundamentals of COPD Care, as recommended by NICE, to be delivered to every person in Northern Ireland living with COPD.
- Digital self-management tools to be rolled out across Northern Ireland.
- Re-establishment of a functioning Executive and Assembly to help mitigate the impact of the cost of living crisis.
- People living with terminal lung conditions to get the palliative care support they need.