Introduction

Underuse of inhaled corticosteroid (preventer) inhalers and over-reliance on short-acting beta agonist (SABA) inhalers (reliever or rescue inhalers) is common and linked to more asthma exacerbations, poorer clinical outcomes and higher carbon emissions.

There are eight projects in this section which will help you identify and manage asthma patients at risk of poor control through searches and simple system changes in clinical practice. Some of the projects are really quick changes, such as changing the prescribing interval of SABA inhalers. Others, such as identifying patients at risk of poor control, will be an ongoing process. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the different projects.

To improve the quality of asthma consultations, we recommend that all clinicians read through approach to consultations.

Target population

Patients on the QOF Asthma register

Searches and Templates

Primary Care IT have developed searches to help identify patients at risk of poor control as well as creating an asthma template that pulls out objective information on inhaler use from the clinical record. Register for the template and searches. Remember to check your junk email for an email from theteam@primarycareit.co.uk

Education

In this education video, Dr Katherine Hickman, GP and Vice-Chair of the Primary Care Respiratory Society, discusses the problems with SABA over-reliance and the importance of ensuring regular preventer inhaler use. She also explain the role of Maintenance and Asthma Reliever Therapy (MART).