BBC News Online: Health

Doctors warn of lung disease 'epidemic'

Lung diseases kill one in four patients

But the report suggests that ministers are discriminating against patients who have respiratory problems and are failing to give lung diseases the priority they need.

The authors also suggest that death rates, which are among the highest in Europe, will continue to rise unless ministers make more money available and employ more doctors to treat patients with lung disease.

It is also the most common reason patients give for visiting their GP and is estimated to cost the NHS £2.5bn each year - more than any other disease.

However, the BTS has dismissed current funding as 'hugely inadequate' and has said the number of doctors needs to be trebled and brought into line with European levels if the 'epidemic' is to be tackled.

Doctors also want a new National Service Framework to set UK-wide standards for the treatment of patients with respiratory conditions and eliminate variations in care.

Discrimination

"With investment and improvements already pledged for heart disease and cancer, these statistics prove in black and white that this government is discriminating by disease area in the NHS.

"The lack of a national programme of treatment and care for respiratory disease, together with a severe shortage of chest specialists, nurses and physiotherapists, is causing patients with a lung disease to suffer unnecessarily."

BTS chairman Dr Martyn Partridge said the findings were surprising and appalling.

He added: "We don't know why death rates are so high but it cannot be a coincidence that we have one third of the number of lung specialists compared to Europe.

"In this country, an acceptance of lung disease has gone on too long. Look at the figures in France, Germany, Italy. That's what really hurts."

A spokeswoman for the British Lung Foundation welcomed the report and called on the government to take action.

"The government needs to address the shortage in respiratory specialists as a matter of urgency," she told BBC News Online.

Professor Sir Charles George, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said heart disease remained the single biggest killer among 35 to 74 year olds.

"It is vital that this message is not diluted."

He added: "There is no doubt about the importance of lung disease as a cause of death and suffering. However, smoking is a common link between heart disease, many cancers and chest disease such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema."

Government response

But he said: "In the NHS there is always a danger of trying to solve every problem at once, and not solving any problem at all.

"We have got to keep focused on the things that are the most serious. Within lung disease the biggest killer is lung cancer."

Mr Milburn said the number of cases of lung cancer, and the number of deaths from the disease was now falling. The government had specific plans in place, including increasing the number of consultants, to tackle the disease.