The Government should provide long-term funding for GP practices to offer testing for lung conditions, including spirometry and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), a charity has said.
Asthma+Lung UK also wants to see national diagnosis targets for lung conditions and for waiting lists to be halved by 2028.
It comes after a survey of 12,000 people with lung conditions in the UK found that over half of respondents were treated for their immediate chest symptoms but did not have the underlying cause investigated initially.
One in five of all respondents had to wait over a year for an accurate diagnosis of a chronic lung condition.
It is not the first time that concerns about access to respiratory testing have been raised, and it has been calculated that lack of funding for FeNO alone is costing the NHS millions in hospital stays and treatment.
In May, an Norfolk LMC warned that hospitals were regularly rejecting GP referrals for spirometry.
The charity said the root of the problem was the availability of simple tests which force GPs to take a ‘sticking plaster’ approach of treating chest symptoms, but not the cause.
Combined with pressures in primary care, this means the early signs of a lung condition are too often missed, delaying appropriate treatment.
As well as undiagnosed COPD, as many as 750,000 people in England are misdiagnosed with asthma, costing an estimated £132 million every year, figures from the charity show.
Current pressures also show that after specialist referral, two in five people do not start treatment within the recommended 18 weeks, and over 6,000 are waiting more than a year.
No one should have to wait longer than six weeks for a diagnostic test, the charity said in their plea for funding for primary care services.
Long-awaited new draft UK joint guidelines on asthma care also recommends stepwise testing and the review committee warned meeting the recommendations will require ‘significant investment’.
Asthma+Lung UK CEO Sarah Sleet said people who were struggling to breathe face agonising waits for an accurate diagnosis.
‘They’re being misdiagnosed, or diagnosed too late, or are not put on the right treatment. As a result, the pressures on the NHS grow and grow with more emergency admissions and hospital stays. We need lung conditions to be treated as seriously as cancer and heart disease.’
She added: ‘The new Government’s commitment to rebalancing spending between primary care and secondary care is very welcome.
‘We are calling for funding for GP practices to provide rapid testing for everyone experiencing signs of a lung condition.
‘We also need national targets for diagnosis and specialist treatment to drive faster diagnosis and provide quicker access to the right course of treatment so people with lung conditions can slow down the progression of their illness and better manage their symptoms.’
A DHSC spokesperson said: ‘Patients can’t get through the front door of the NHS, so they aren’t getting the timely care or diagnoses they need.
‘We will train thousands more GPs and cut the red tape that ties up GPs time, so patients can get an appointment when they need one.
‘We will also cut NHS waiting lists by providing an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to better ensure patients receive the diagnosis and treatment they need for lung conditions.’
Sadly pie in the sky thinking. This won’t come back to general practice as not fully funded and currently accreditation to do it is impossible in practice. Thanks for the input anyway one organ charity. You come well behind children’s mental health I’m afraid where there is zero service or help available. Followed by neurology and dermatology.