Measures aimed at reducing unplanned hospital admissions for people with long-term conditions, including asthma, have been announced by Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health.

The Government predicts that if it can reduce these emergency admissions by 30% this could save the NHS £400m.

The measures - all recommendations from the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement - ask Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to identify which conditions should be a local priority and to use practice based commissioning or community nurses where possible. Hospitals are also asked to feed back to GPs and to consider alternatives to admitting people.

Donna Covey, Chief Executive of Asthma UK, welcomed the announcement: 'There are on average more than 72,000 hospital admissions for asthma in the UK every year and an estimated 75% of these are preventable. People with asthma who experience frequent symptoms and attacks probably do not have their asthma under control because they are not receiving the right information, such as a written personal asthma action plan.

'It takes only 20 minutes on average for a healthcare professional to talk somebody through an asthma action plan, but what you get back from that is fewer hospital admissions and fewer unexpected attendances at the GP,' she continued.

'One of the things we need to see is ways in which people get more time up front, so they're taking up less time and less money and less of their lives further down the line. We therefore urge PCTs to take on board and act upon these recommendations,' concluded Covey.

Patricia Hewitt said: 'Whilst it's important to know the hospital is always there, it's a much better, more stable life for people if they can be treated in the community without the need for so many emergencies.'

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