HC Deb 03 December 2002 vol 395 cc744-6
7. Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge)

What assessment he has made of the Buteyko method of asthma management. [82622]

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Jacqui Smith)

Following the Adjournment debate on the Buteyko technique in June, the chief medical officer asked his special projects officer to investigate the claims made for the technique. He found that the technique was helpful for some patients with asthma, but that more research was needed into it.

Mrs. Campbell

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Will she look carefully at the trial in Nottingham, which is being funded by the National Asthma Campaign, and at the trial at Glasgow university? The latter has shown that asthma patients who are taught to breathe correctly can achieve a 98 per cent. reduction in reliever medication, and a 92 per cent. reduction in preventive medication. Does she agree that that is an excellent way to save on the NHS drugs bill?

Jacqui Smith

I understand that the chief executive of the National Asthma Campaign wrote to the chief medical officer in September, giving some of the preliminary results of the Nottingham inquiry to which my hon. Friend refers. The trial in Scotland, which is being undertaken by Jill McGowan, is still in progress and will not be finished until April 2003. At that stage, conclusions can be formally evaluated using peer review. I agree with my hon. Friend that, given the success that we have already achieved in reducing the incidence of asthma, we must continue to ensure that, where well-researched and successful interventions exist, they are available to patients on the NHS. What is important is that we do the research necessary to show that this method would be as clinically effective as the drug treatments that are proving effective at the moment.

Mr. David Tredinnick (Bosworth)

Surely the Minister must recognise that sufficient evidence has been provided in this regard by the 1995 Brisbane trial alone. That trial showed that broncodilator use declined by more than 90 per cent., and that steroid use decreased by 49 per cent., through the Buteyko breathing technique. She has referred to other treatments that might be considered in the health service, but is she aware that some 12 complementary therapies—such as yoga, nutritional medicine and the Alexander technique, which deals with posture—could be inexpensively deployed? When will the Government take seriously such treatments, which are very effective, instead of just paying lip service to them?

Jacqui Smith

I am the lucky Minister who has to answer the hon. Gentleman's question on complementary medicines today. Obviously, approaches and techniques that give asthma patients lasting relief and greater control of their lives are to be welcomed. That includes the use of complementary therapies, which primary care trusts can commission if they consider them to be effective, in clinical and cost terms, for a particular health need. However, although techniques such as the Buteyko method and others to which the hon. Gentleman referred may have significant benefit, there is no robust scientific evidence that any complementary therapy on its own can provide a lasting cure for asthma. It would therefore be wrong to build up patients' hopes that their asthma could be cured without resort to an existing drug therapy. However, as I made clear to my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Mrs. Campbell), the chief medical officer and the Medical Research Council have accepted that more research is needed. Having been an asthma sufferer for some years myself, and I hope that that research will be undertaken.

Mr. Bob Blizzard (Waveney)

Should not we consider asthma in the context of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases? Is my hon. Friend aware of the COPD patient manifesto, launched on world COPD day in November? Will she join me in congratulating the British Lung Foundation, and local Breathe Easy groups such as the one in my constituency, on their work in raising awareness of these ailments, and in providing support for sufferers? Will her Department make a formal response to the COPD patient manifesto?

Jacqui Smith

My hon. Friend makes an important point about the role of professional, voluntary and patient organisations in raising awareness of conditions, and of some of the effective techniques that patients understand can be used in treatments. I am sure that my hon. Friend will be aware of the Department's expert patient programme. By means of a series of pilot schemes, it is looking for ways to ensure that professionals and patients can work together more effectively to enable patients to manage their conditions. I shall certainly look at the patient manifesto to which my hon. Friend has referred with close interest.