NHS QIS - Clinical Standards for COPD Now - Don't Delay Until 2008

That the Parliament notes with grave concern the recent statement by Dr David R Steel, Chief Executive of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) at its board meeting on 26 October 2006 that a commitment to clinical standards for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Scotland will not be forthcoming until after Audit Scotland reports back on its study of management of adults with long-term conditions including COPD, which is not due until May 2007 and also until the Department of Health’s National Service Framework for England is published in May 2008; notes that NHS QIS is a Scottish body, initially formed through the amalgamation of a number of organisations that worked on improving the quality of healthcare in Scotland: the Clinical Resource and Audit Group, the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland, the Health Technology Board for Scotland, the Nursing and Midwifery Practice Development Unit and the Scottish Health Advisory Service; therefore calls on NHS QIS to develop clinical standards for COPD as soon as possible, thus ensuring its independent status and determining its own work programme which takes full account of NHS Scotland’s priorities; notes that one person dies of COPD every two hours, that it is the third most common reason for an acute hospital admission and that it costs NHS Scotland an estimated £138 million a year; notes that these are dreadful indicators that something must be done urgently to set clinical standards and should not wait until after 2008 as recommended by NHS QIS, and calls on NHS QIS to reconsider implementing a commitment to clinical standards for COPD at its next board meeting on 14 December 2006.