Access to care

Specialist multidisciplinary care is at the heart of supporting people with CF to live longer, healthier lives. But right now, CF teams across the UK are under immense pressure. Staff shortages, recruitment and retention issues, and gaps in mental health and social support are leaving people with CF without the care they need.

We’re calling on the Government to take urgent action, because securing the future of CF care means investing in the people who deliver it.

It’s essential that everyone with CF is able to access a CF social worker and CF clinical psychologist when they need it. But we've found that:

• 1 in 3 people with CF worry about their mental health every day
• fewer than 1 in 2 responding CF centres (both paediatric and adult) had a CF social worker within their MDT
• 28% of children with CF or their families reported being unable to access a social worker when needed.

What we’re calling for

We’re calling on the Government to:

• ensure that CF services are adequately resourced to provide access to the full range of specialist multidisciplinary care to people with CF when they require it, including CF social workers and psychologists
• implement a workforce strategy to tackle recruitment and retention issues, including addressing pay and grading to help retain healthcare professionals that suffer from high vacancy rates.

Find out more about our policy recommendations

How you can help

Unite with us to make sure cystic fibrosis is high on the agenda for your local parliamentarian.

Find out how