At least one in five people will be diagnosed with a lung condition at some point in their lives.
The Campaign
The Taskforce for Lung Health is an alliance of 34 members representing patients, health care professionals, the voluntary sector and professional associations focused on improving the nation’s lung health. They have produced a five-year plan with 43 recommendations for policy and practice changes needed to prevent more people from developing respiratory problems and to improve the care of patients who already have lung disease.
The Taskforce was set up to help address the fact that there have been no improvements in outcomes for people with lung disease for more than 10 years. This is despite the fact that at least one in five people will be diagnosed with a lung condition at some point in their lives, and every year 115,000 people die and there are 700,000 hospital admissions because of lung disease.
By bringing together the previously disparate respiratory community we have been able to make a compelling case for increasing the commitment and resourcing for lung health issues.
The Change
The necessary recognition has been now been secured with the NHS England Long-Term Plan including respiratory as a clinical priority, and the creation of a dedicated respiratory policy team in NHS England. Another key achievement has been the creation of an online Lung Health Data Tracker.
They are also raising awareness of lung health issues among the general public and healthcare professionals by securing media coverage in a wide range of digital, print and broadcast media. This has been particularly significant during the pandemic where they have brought this collective knowledge and experience and used it to campaign on the importance of ensuring the ongoing delivery of essential services for people with lung disease.
The Future
They remain committed to using use their system-wide voice to push for all their recommendations to be implemented in order to improve the lives of people with lung disease.
Who else was involved?
The Taskforce for Lung Health is an alliance of 34 organsiations and individuals from across the respiratory community who are committed to achieving real change in the nation’s lung health. All our members have been vital in helping the Taskforce raise awareness of lung disease and secure additional NHS resources.