Sunderland and Fleming¹ show declining episodes of acute asthma seen in general practice and make reference to increasing hospitalisation for childhood asthma between 1970 and 1990. Whilst overall paediatric admissions have risen since 1990,² I present data here which shows that there has been a decline in hospital asthma admissions for children in England since 1990. This is the case even when the trend to describe some hospital admissions as due to viral wheeze or wheezy bronchitis is taken into account—“a diagnostic transfer” also considered by Sunderland and Fleming. Hospital episode …