Concern over people with asthma missing key medicine checks

Concern over a quarter of people with asthma in the North of England missing key medicine checks at annual review

New analysis of key GP data by Asthma UK shows that more than a quarter of people with asthma in the North of England are missing out on essential annual reviews to check whether they are on the right medicine and can use their inhalers properly.

This is hugely concerning given that the recent UK-wide National Review of Asthma Deaths identified prescribing errors in nearly half (47%) of asthma deaths and room for improvement in the care received by a shocking 83% of those who died. The National Review also highlighted that only 57% of those who died had an annual review of their asthma in the last 12 months of their life and, of those who did have one, many people’s reviews didn’t include the key components.

There is significant variation in the numbers of people attending annual reviews in England: NHS Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had the lowest percentage of patients attending annual reviews with only 61.6% and NHS North East Lincolnshire CCG had the most patients receiving reviews at 78%. The average in the North of England is 69.5%.

It is crucial that healthcare professionals make sure that patients are attending reviews and that they get prescribed the right medicines, not least because mistakes cost lives but because asthma prescribing in primary care is so expensive, making up a massive 86% of the annual £1bn spend on asthma. This is one of the most expensive areas of cost for the NHS, so the fact that up to a third of people with asthma make mistakes with their inhalers that are significant enough to reduce the effectiveness of their treatments, should make everyone sit up and take notice.

Dr Samantha Walker, Deputy Chief Executive of Asthma UK comments: “The fact that over a quarter of people with asthma in the North of England are not getting their medicines checked at their annual review is no doubt contributing to the rising NHS spend on asthma and putting people’s lives at risk. With the worrying scale of prescribing errors identified by the National Review of Asthma Deaths, it’s vital that doctors and nurses do everything they can to follow up with patients to review their medicines, especially as asthma can vary hugely over the year. We’re keen to understand where further improvements can be made to asthma care in the North of England so urge people with asthma to complete our survey www.asthma.org.uk/compareyourcare to find out how their care compares to national standards”.

Dr Mark Levy, National Review of Asthma Deaths clinical lead at the Royal College of Physicians (2011-2014) says: “Asthma reviews were used as one of the indicators of quality in the NRAD when reviewing the care received by those who died. Not receiving a review was identified as a possible contributing factor to many of the deaths, and a number of the report’s recommendations indicated that GPs and secondary care providers must improve the quality and frequency of asthma reviews. It really is imperative that everyone has a review to reduce their risk of a potentially fatal asthma attack.”

People with asthma can rate their asthma care at:

www.asthma.org.uk/compareyourcare