The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) came out a decade ago, yet as a nation, we still have the highest asthma death rate in Europe - four times that of Italy or the Netherlands. This is unsurprising, considering many patients still rely on their blue inhalers alone.However:• Blue inhalers don’t treat inflammation• Brown inhalers don’t relieve symptoms quicklyFirst and foremost, the best inhaler is the inhaler the patient will use and identifying what this is should actively involve the patient.
New BTS/SIGN/NICE Guideline on Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management 2024
This is a high-level summary of what the new BTS/NICE/SIGN Asthma: diagnosis monitoring and chronic asthma management guideline means for you as a primary healthcare professional and what steps you need to take to implement it effectively.
This article has been created as a summary of a range of material from PCRS tools and encompasses the basics of a good respiratory review.
This document outlines a consensus recommendation based on the best available evidence and expert opinion. Its purpose is to provide guidance on a safe approach within the limitations of the evidence and devices currently available. It will be important that these recommendations are regularly reviewed and there is careful and close monitoring of patients whose care is based on this guidance, especially in younger age groups.
Corinne Beirne, Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Amanda Roberts, from PCRS’s patient reference group, discuss what constitutes a good asthma review from a patient’s perspective.
2024 marked a pivotal change in the management of asthma in the UK with the publication of a joint British Thoracic Society (BTS), National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline. This guideline, ‘Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management’, has the potential to be the paradigm shift that is needed to improve asthma care in the UK.In the 2024 BTS/NICE/SIGN guideline1 there is a clear statement that says:
Primary Care Respiratory Society (PCRS) position statement
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