New Data Reveals the High Cost of Asthma

New data from Asthma UK shows that progress has stalled in reducing emergency hospital admissions in the 5.4 million people with asthma in the UK and that opportunities to save millions of pounds are being ignored.

The latest data on hospital admissions shows that there continues to be a massive regional divide. This is highlighted by a four fold difference between the PCTs in England with the highest and lowest admissions and a six fold difference for children’s admissions.

As well as the devastating effect on people’s lives, emergency hospital admissions are extremely costly and account for £61 million of the estimated £1 billion cost of asthma to the NHS each year. However at least £4.5 million could be saved and thousands of people with asthma could be spared the fear of an emergency hospital visit if PCTs with higher than average admissions for asthma committed to reducing their rates to the national average.

There has been little change in admissions levels in England in recent years. Regional variations mean that there are still significant differences in someone’s chance of being hospitalised for asthma depending on where they live. The North West continues to be the region with the highest number of emergency admissions relative to its population. People in the North West, for example, are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for an asthma attack as people in the East of England or in Northern Ireland.

Across the UK, a person is admitted to hospital on average every seven minutes because of their asthma and its effects can be devastating and in some cases fatal.

Victoria, 23, from Filey in North Yorkshire has experienced traumatic hospital admissions and a difference in care first hand. Victoria first developed brittle asthma at 18 months old and it has profoundly impacted on her life. When her asthma is bad she barely sleeps and if she does, she dreams of drowning or suffocating. She is usually off work at least every 6 weeks with asthma or related illnesses such as chest infections and in the last 12 months she has been in hospital 12 times. Victoria is disappointed with her NHS asthma care in her local hospital, she says: ‘Often during an attack my notes aren’t read so I have to go through my medical history myself which is really difficult when I can hardly breathe and am gasping for breath. I’ve had big variations in care, when I was visiting family further south, I had really good treatment in two hospitals where decisions about my treatment were explained properly to me.’

Victoria isn’t alone, as we know there is a strong North/South divide for hospital admissions of all ages. Although reasons for the differences aren’t fully known as more data is needed to fully understand the problem, we do know that there is a very strong correlation between deprivation and emergency asthma admissions as 17 of the top 20 areas are classified as among the most deprived in England. Other possible factors include the absence of consistent national standards to ensure high quality services wherever people live, which would help ensure that everyone with asthma is seen by an trained asthma specialist and everyone with asthma has a personal asthma action plan. We know that if you don’t have a plan you are four times more likely to have an emergency admission for your asthma, yet the latest data shows that two thirds of people with asthma are still living without this vital tool.

Neil Churchill, Chief Executive of Asthma UK says: ‘We’re working closely with a number of PCTs with the highest admissions in the country to help them reduce their rates but there’s still much work to be done to ensure consistent high quality standards for people with asthma and make important cost savings. We are targeting resources in the areas of greatest need – including the North West of England. We recognise this is a big challenge for PCTs but changes like providing access to local specialist asthma nurses and offering every person with asthma a personal asthma action plan will make a big difference in ensuring effective asthma management. Having an asthma chapter in the forthcoming COPD national strategy in England and the forthcoming asthma standards in Northern Ireland will also aid healthcare professionals and we look forward to working more closely with the governments and health services across the UK to maximise the chapter’s impact’.

For further information and please contact the Asthma UK media team on 020 7786 4949 or visit www.asthma.org.uk

Data Source

• The admissions figures were calculated for Asthma UK by the Lung & Asthma Information Agency (LAIA) which has access to the full Hospital Episode Statistics dataset for England. 
  
  

Press Release Supplied With the Kind Permission of Asthma UK