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People with breathing difficulties are being left without a diagnosis or are receiving treatment for conditions they don’t have, according to a new report from lung charity Asthma + Lung UK.
The analysis revealed that simple tests for common lung conditions aren’t widely available to GPs, forcing them to make educated guesses when it comes to diagnosis, which is leading to an avoidable hospital stays and treatment costing £2.2 billion.
It also found that thousands of people with suspected lung conditions across England miss out on tests crucial for managing lung conditions effectively and slowing down the progression of incurable lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma.
In addition, the analysis showed that as many as 750,000 people in England are misdiagnosed with asthma, costing an estimated £132 million every year.
Dr Andrew Whittamore, Clinical Lead at Asthma + Lung UK and a practising GP, said: “The barriers GP practices face are huge. These include lack of funding, workforce and training needed to carry out these tests properly and the physical space needed to do them. For people with lung conditions, it means delays to their diagnosis and sometimes progression of their lung disease to more advanced stages which can make treatment more challenging.
“In many areas of the country basic lung function tests are not easy to access. This means many healthcare professionals can’t get a full picture of what might be causing someone to cough, wheeze, have frequent chest infections or shortness of breath. The ripple effect of this lack of testing means that patients are more likely to have a delay in their diagnosis or get an incorrect diagnosis leading to them being more seriously unwell.”
The charity says people with lung conditions are trapped in a vicious circle of late diagnosis, a limited number and lack of access to treatments, and poor support leaving people to fend for themselves. This leads to avoidable emergency hospital admissions, causing pain for people with lung conditions and their families and putting a significant, avoidable strain on the NHS.
Economic modelling by PwC shows that lung conditions cost the NHS over £9.6 billion every year and are a leading cause of winter pressures on the NHS, as people with lung conditions are more vulnerable to respiratory viruses including flu and colder temperatures.
The government recently announced £250m in emergency funding to provide an extra 5,000 NHS hospital beds in England this coming winter. If properly implemented, Asthma + Lung UK’s three recommendations would save significantly more, £307 million a year and free up just under 273,000 bed days, of which, over a third would be during the winter period in England.