Variations and delays in COPD care warrant new targets, says college

Doctors have called for greater collaboration across hospital teams to ensure that patients with chronic obstructive respiratory disease (COPD) get the most appropriate care promptly after finding that over half of patients are waiting too long for pulmonary rehabilitation.

Two audits from the Royal College of Physicians presented a picture of the organisation, resourcing, and care of patients with COPD in 182 hospitals in England and Wales in 2016, updating similar audits carried out in 2014 (which looked at care in 2013).12

They found that only 54% of hospitals provided access to smoking cessation services in 2016 compared with 63% in 2013. Even then only a quarter of …