AQW 21522/22-27


Mr Danny Donnelly
Alliance Party
East Antrim


Tabled Date: 29/01/2025
Answered On Date: 13/02/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health for an update on the tranche one respiratory working groups (i) adult asthma; (ii) paediatrics; (iii) interstitial lung disease; and (iv) primary care.


Answer:
Tranche one of the respiratory priorities are continuing to progress.
Please find updates on the four working groups below:
Adult Asthma
The Adult Asthma Sub Group members have agreed to use the basis of the ACC Consensus Pathway – Management of Uncontrolled Asthma in Adults produced by the AHSN Network and adjust it for a gold standard service for NI. This pathway examines various stages of treatment and care for people living with asthma:
Indicators of Uncontrolled Asthma
Primary Care
Secondary Care
Severe Asthma Centre/Hub for more specialist care
The group noted the main challenge being timely diagnosis and management of asthma. Members agreed that access to diagnostic testing is fundamental for the intermediate care model to be successful and highlighted an interdependency with the Diagnostic in Primary Care Sub Group work. The next meeting of Adult Asthma Sub group is scheduled for 20 February 2025.
Paediatrics
Work is yet to progress on this area. The working groups (1. Complex Respiratory 2. Sleep and 3. Asthma) are yet to meet as yet as colleagues are exploring if an existing forum, Northern Ireland Paediatric Respiratory and Allergy Network (NIPRAN) would be better placed to lead on this work to avoid duplication and discussions on how this is taken forward are being advanced in Spring 2025. As these pathways reflect NICE guidance with a hub and spoke model with the Belfast Children’s Hospital as the hub, it is felt that building on existing soft networks across paediatrics in NI will be relatively straightforward. However, this group will need to consider additional areas of improvement and therefore investment in 2025/26.
Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
During a series of online workshops over the summer of 2024, members reviewed current levels of service delivery across Northern Ireland and highlighted 5 priority areas for improvement and with that information develop a service pathway for patients. These are:
Primary Care Education
Standards of Care
Proformas
Data Driven Change
Community and Co-ordination
A short term aim of the Sub Group is to agree an optimal pathway for ILD in NI. A workshop took place in September 2024 where stakeholders considered and discussed options. An agreed optimal pathway has now been developed and a further workshop is being organised to take place in April to explore implementation.
Primary Care Diagnostics Sub Group
The aim of the Sub Group is to develop a new service model for carrying out diagnostics in Primary Care. Scoping and exploration of a new service model is being carried out and a draft position paper is currently being developed for submission to SPPG to consider this as a priority for investment in 25/26.
The 3 options include:
Return to the pre-covid model of provision
A GP Practice based hub model
A mobile hub and spoke model