PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Lung Diseases (7 July 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to address regional inequalities in health outcomes for interstitial lung disease in the last year; and if he will make a statement.

Asked by:
Sir Nicholas Dakin (Labour)

In March 2014, NHS England published Putting Patients First: the NHS England business plan for 2014/15 – 2016/17 . This reaffirms its commitment to improving the quality of care, improving equality and reducing health inequalities, and that reducing mortality and improving outcomes outcome for people with respiratory disease remains a priority.

The commissioning of services for interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the responsibility of NHS England in its role as commissioner of specialist services. It has published a service specification for ILD which introduces a common standard for commissioning these services across England with the aim of ensuring equality of patient access to multi-disciplinary team diagnosis and current treatments.

Answered by:
Jane Ellison (Conservative)
10 July 2014