Day two of Limelight week

Neil Churchill - Chief Executive

Tagged: Putting Asthma in the Limelight, Department of Health, Alan Johnson, Equality and Human Rights Commission

Today, health secretary Alan Johnson visits a London hospital and meets people going to its severe asthma clinic. It’s a factfinding tour and as ever, listening to people’s personal experience is worth a file full of statistics. His visit gives us the opportunity to impress the need to do more for asthma. The Department of Health has set up a steering group and we expect it to make strong recommendations.

In essence, we want to make sure that everyone with asthma has access to good standards of care, that some of the huge variations in health outcomes across the country are tackled and that asthma should no longer be a barrier to full participation.

On that front, I was pleased to get a letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. I’d written to complain that use of inhaled corticosteroids are used as an automatic bar against joining the police. They express concern and promise to look into it. Could result in enforcement notices to correct this silly injustice.

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neil

7 May 09
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Absolutely. This is what the Equality Commission had to say about it: ‘We are concerned to hear about the practice you describe of what appears to be a blanket application of a policy to reject people using this form of treatment, without considering individual applicants’ capabilities…..as you may know, when considering whether someone meets the definition of a disabled person under the Disability Discrimination Act, the effects of an individual’s condition on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities are considered by reference to what the effects would be without medication. This provision applies even if the measures result in the effects being completely under control or not at all apparent. Some people with asthma would therefore be afforded protection under the DDA, which covers the area of recruitment in employment.’

cathbear

6 May 09
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I'm quite shocked to hear that ICS bars entrance to the Police. I could almost see the point that you don't want your Police officer gasping and wheezing and being unable to give chase to a criminal, but it shows a shocking lack of understanding about asthma which is well-controlled on medication. On this basis they would bar me from the Police, and I've just run the marathon.... :)

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