Asthma group calls for national plan for sufferers
New ways to reduce the cost of asthma-related illnesses to the Irish state will be outlined in a report being unveiled by the Asthma Society of Ireland later today.
The association is calling on the government to implement the National Asthma Programme, which it said will benefit patients, the health system, and employers.
The group previously submitted the National Asthma Programme to the Government ahead of the Budget, calling for Respiratory Clinical Nurses in each HSE service area, as well as the inclusion of the programme in new GP contracts.
Sharon Cosgrove, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland, said Ireland has the fourth-highest incidence of asthma across the world.
"It affects one in ten adults and one in five children, so we're tackling much more difficult problem than some other countries where there's a much lower incidence," she said.
So it's a bigger problem to tackle, but we've seen elsewhere – in Australia [where the levels are very high – we've seen they've had great successes with a similar programme."
