Today in the Guardian:
Overlooked lung conditions could create ‘deluge of hospital admissions this winter’ in England, with GPs unable to offer basic lung function testing, report finds
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/26/thousands-with-breathing-problems-going-undiagnosed-due-to-lack-of-tests
When I read this, I was reminded of this in September 2019:
In Nursing Standard yesterday this horrific news:
Asthma patients are putting their lives at risk by skipping medication due to the cost, nurses have reported. The trend, revealed in an Asthma UK survey of 636 nurses in England, has prompted the RCN to call for prescription costs for asthma medication to be scrapped, as they have been for diabetes medication. In the survey, 58% of nurses said they had seen patients have an asthma attack or require emergency care as a result of not taking medication because they were unable to afford it.
Once more the contrast with Scotland is stark:
Asthma deaths are soaring in England and Wales but beginning to fall in Scotland. Clearly prescription costs will play a part but there seems to be another factor – a lack of basic checks in treatment plans including regular tests:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs25/documents/briefing-paper
Scots asthma sufferers seem significantly more likely to have a treatment plan in place than those in England. The situation in Labour Wales is very bad with less than a third being treated properly.
Judging by the Guardian today, little has been done to improve the situation in England.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
When I have had the prescriptions argument on twitter unionists insist that over 90% of English people are eligible for free prescriptions and that, they say, negates my argument.
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They probably misinterpret – deliberately or otherwise – the data. There are three groups eligible for free prescriptions in England, the over 60s, the U16s and the 16-18s in full time education. The number of prescriptions dispensed free of charge there hovers at around 90% of the total annually – and around 65% of those go to the over 60s.
What that doesn’t take into account, of course, is threefold, that –
1) the over 60s are far more likely to have long-term illnesses which require repeat prescriptions;
2) the bulk of the 19-59 year olds very likely can’t afford to pay for prescriptions so go without or self-medicate using herbal medicines;
3) Brexit caused supply problems with many medications, again meaning that people go without or resort to herbal medicines.
So the 90% refers to prescriptions prescribed free of charge, not to the number of people eligible for free prescriptions.
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When people in England can’t afford their prescriptions for chronic illness as happened to my brother (not eligible for free as he was working though on a low wage) they end up in hospital. That costs the English NHS and the state more money than if they had free prescriptions which the people pay for anyway via taxes and NI.
The English NHS is not going to be there much longer sadly. The sale has been planned for a long time, since Thatcher. Tories helped by Labour are just putting the finishing touches to it now…Thatcher’s dream come true, the peoples’ nightmare. 😦
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One of the reasons for things being a bit better in Scotland with regard to asthma is that air quality according to a recent Europe-wide survey is low compared to the rest of the continent. There are areas around our cities where air quality is lower than in most of the rest of Scotland. However, although the UK air quality data are better than mainland Europe, often markedly so, the quality decreases the further south in the U.K.
And, of course, the UK Government and their media foghorns oppose low emissions zones, low traffic neighbourhoods and ‘the war on the motorist’.
I our own neck of the woods local low emission zones have ‘devastated local businesses’ and, for several months the Glasgow Times has been giving regular headline publicity to a garage owner who is challenging the extension of the LEZ in Glasgow City Centre on the grounds that it is unnecessary. He received £100000 support from a LabourParty member.
Recent data for 2022 indicated air quality in the city centre is poorer compared to 2021 and 2020, and some petrolheads are claiming it is the LEZ that is responsible! 2020 and 2021 were lockdown years when traffic volumes were much lower and, consequently, air quality improved because of the huge reduction in traffic. In 2022 traffic volumes were nearer to pre Covid levels. The LEZ did not exist and so had no effect on the 2022 data.
However, for the unionist media, truth is an option rarely used.
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