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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Denis Campbell Health policy editor

Breathing issues cause more emergency NHS admissions than any other condition

A person's hand reaching for an inhaler
A record low number of people with asthma or COPD are getting the five aspects of lung care needed to keep them healthy, Asthma + Lung UK says. Photograph: RealPeopleGroup/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Serious breathing problems lead to more emergency admissions to hospital in England than any other medical condition, NHS data reveals.

More people with asthma, bronchitis or emphysema have to go into hospital for treatment because they are struggling to breathe than those with heart disease, joint problems or cancer.

During 2023-24 hospitals in England recorded 868,212 emergency admissions for diseases of the respiratory system, NHS figures obtained by Asthma + Lung UK show. That represented one in eight of all the 5.2m unplanned admissions during the year.

Such admissions are contributing significantly to hospitals being overwhelmed so often, and especially during winter, when cold weather breeds infections, the charity said.

Those 868,212 admissions were more than the 739,226 (11%) admissions as a result of an injury, poisoning or other external cause and 639,908 (10%) for heart problems and other circulatory system conditions.

They were also more than five times higher than the 151,581 recorded for pregnancy and childbirth-related problems and 143,624 recorded for cancer.

Asthma + Lung UK claims the number of unplanned stays in hospital for breathing problems is so high because of a “collapse in care for people with lung conditions” in recent years.

A record low number of people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (bronchitis or emphysema) (COPD) are getting the five aspects of lung care needed to keep them healthy, such as vaccination against winter flu or help to stop smoking, the charity said. This year just one in 10 lung patients had all five, a big drop on the 26% who did so as recently as 2021.

“Lung conditions are silently suffocating the NHS, pushing it to breaking point and causing 66,524 deaths every year,” said Sarah Sleet, its chief executive. “Every day, people with respiratory conditions are needlessly suffering, hospitals are overwhelmed by emergency admissions for breathing issues, particularly during the winter.”

Many of the huge number of emergency admissions would be prevented, and lives saved, if the health service took better care of lung patients in the first place, the charity believes.

“Without a bold overhaul of how we prevent, diagnose and treat lung disease the NHS will continue to struggle, and the cost will be counted in lives lost,” Sleet added.

The NHS needs to make diagnostic tests for breathing conditions available outside hospitals and improve the care that GPs and specialist community-based nurses give lung patients, she said.

Poorer people are more than twice likely than the better-off to end up in hospital because they cannot breathe normally, the NHS data also shows.

NHS England recently launched a campaign to encourage eligible people to get their flu, Covid and RSV jabs before the cold months arrive and the UK Health Security Agency highlighted that more than 18,000 adults died of flu over the last two winters.

Dr Nick Hopkinson, the charity’s medical director and a lung consultant at the Royal Brompton hospital in London, said: “People with COPD and asthma manage their symptoms day to day, for example with an inhaler. But they can have an acute event – an exacerbation of their condition – because they are triggered by something like a viral infection.

“That causes their lungs to become worse and they become breathless, which is incredibly frightening. They then need to have hospital treatment, for anything from a few days to a few weeks, in order to receive oxygen or ventilatory support.

“There’s no doubt that a lot of these emergency admissions are avoidable and that with better care many people would not deteriorate into needing hospital care in the first place.”

NHS England has been approached for comment.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government is committed to transforming diagnostic services, including for lung diseases, and will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet demand. We will also deliver 40,000 more elective care appointments every week and invest an extra £1.5bn on new surgical hubs and AI scanners.”

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