§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on(a) preventing and (b) alleviating asthma in 515W children; what national initiatives are targeted at children with asthma; and how much each of these initiatives costs. [53358]
§ Ms JowellThe Government are working closely with the health professions, the National Asthma Campaign and all those with an interest in asthma to improve knowledge of the causes of asthma and to make life as normal as possible for children and adults who suffer from it.
Management of asthma, in children as in adults, mainly takes place in primary care. 93 per cent. of general practitioners run organised programmes of care for asthma under the Chronic Disease Management Programme. The Department of Health is currently considering funding for a project, co-ordinated by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, to develop new evidence-based clinical guidelines for asthma in children and adults.
The Medical Research Council spends about £2 million a year on research into prevention and treatment of asthma and related areas. The Department of Health, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the MRC are jointly funding a major research initiative on the relationship between air pollution and respiratory disease, which may inform prevention strategies. The National Asthma Campaign is managing, on behalf of the National Health Service Executive, the NHS National research and development Programme on Asthma Management. Many of the research projects commissioned will be pertinent to asthma in children.
Asthma is featured in the joint Department for Education and Employment and Department of Health guidance on "Supporting pupils with medical needs in school", issued in October 1996. Asthma prevention will be encompassed in the healthy schools initiative launched by the two Departments in May, for which £2 million is committed for 1998–99. In the Green Paper "Our Healthier Nation", healthy schools are identified as a key setting, and asthma also heads the list of possible local target areas.
The National Asthma Campaign also works closely with schools. The Department of Health gave the Campaign a Section 64 project grant, totalling nearly £60,000 over the three years 1994–97, to create a childhood asthma education officer post.