A lasting impression

Alan Johnson, Health Secretary, visited the Brompton yesterday to meet people at the hospital’s severe asthma clinic. This was a fact finding visit for his first speech on asthma today and we were delighted it took place in Limelight week.

People raised a number of concerns with him, including problems getting incapacity benefit and mobility allowance, the perennial injustice of paying for prescriptions, the variability of care standards at hospitals close to home and the challenge of holding down a job or completing an education with variable support.

One of the most important messages was how much asthma affects people’s lives. If he was ever under the impression that asthma is a minor inconvenience, an occasional wheezing, he certainly knows that asthma is serious now.

Thanks to everyone at the Brompton for getting your points across so well. It was also great to see the hospital’s asthma awareness campaign and their efforts for Limelight – some of the nurses had green wigs and there was a fabulous looking purple and lime coloured cake, which I never got the chance to try.

Yesterday I wrote my response to Alan Johnson’s speech. I want to highlight how asthma can affect people’s life chances and draw attention to the variability in asthma emergency hospital admissions. No school should get Healthy School status unless it has effective policies to support children with long-term conditions. And the Government has a key role to play in ensuring that basic standards of care are drawn up and adhered to.

Sadly I missed a cake sale and talent competition in the office which raised  £85 for Asthma UK. Luckily there is much more to come.
 

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