International Respiratory Coalition

National Projects

Find out how the IRC initiative is progressing at national level.

Current activity: the formulation of national-level groups

The International Respiratory Coalition is currently supporting the formulation of the first national-level groups. Once active, updates on national level projects will be added regularly.

Work already in motion at national level

There are many national-level projects (outside of the IRC) already doing great work to improve respiratory healthcare within their respective countries. We were pleased to invite representatives of involved organisations/country representatives to share their experiences as part of the IRC Summit. See their approaches:

  • France

    This presentation outlines how the SPLF, the French speaking pneumology society, brought together a coalition of 27 organisations with a common ambition to raise awareness about the challenges of respiratory health and bring it higher up the agenda. Following, a survey of the French population, the ‘’Respiratory Health Assembly’’ formed 10 recommendations to government regarding respiratory health. They shaped from the following three themes: Prevention and fight against environmental determinants of respiratory diseases; Management and care of respiratory diseases over the whole lifespan; Addressing social and health exclusion in the whole territory. Going forward the coalition will work to keep the collective effort active by monitoring the implementation of their proposals to government and continuing to push for ambitious and concrete measures.

  • United Kingdom

    This presentation outlines the actions that Asthma and Lung UK have taken towards having a national plan for respiratory diseases. It describes how the task force on lung health was formed with 44 organisations involved, how respiratory became a national clinical priority in 2019, as part of the national health service’s long-term plan and how Asthma and Lung UK campaign for community diagnostic centres. It describes some of the challenges of the future and how they aim to campaign for a tripling of research and development in respiratory diseases.

  • Portugal (a)

    This presentation provides a concise and policy-relevant overview of health and the health system in Portugal and shows how respiratory health is integrated. It provides a short synthesis of the: health status in the country; the determinants of health, focusing on behavioural risk factors; the organisation of the health system, and the effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of the health system with special emphasis on COVID-19. The good practices which are beneficial for respiratory are summarised in the conclusions.

  • Portugal (b)

    This presentation gives an overview of the Portuguese National Programme for Respiratory Diseases which ran from 2012-2022. Since 2012, because of the better quality of care provided, health gains have been made concerning reducing total respiratory mortality (excluding lung cancer) and reduction of the standardised rate of hospitalisations for asthma and COPD. Despite the negative impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on accessibility to face-to-face consultations in primary healthcare, slight improvements were observed during 2021, regarding the diagnostic capacity of the two main chronic respiratory diseases (Asthma and COPD).