Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Health Board toolkit: Implementing the new asthma guideline
The PCRS Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Health Board toolkit aims to support healthcare commissioners across the UK to implement the new BTS/NICE/SIGN asthma guideline effectively and ensure the best possible care and outcome for all their asthma patients.
In November 2024 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), in collaboration with the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), launched their updated guideline: Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management [NG245]. This guideline has the potential to deliver high quality, standardised and cost effective care across the asthma care pathway, as well as tackle health inequality and the environmental impact respiratory conditions have in the UK. |  |
However, its effectiveness could be undermined if it is not implemented properly and consistently, particularly at a time when healthcare commissioners are facing considerable financial pressures.
PCRS has developed this toolkit to support healthcare commissioners with implementing the new guideline by providing them with all the information and guidance they need to do this effectively, as well as understand all the benefits it can bring. The toolkit includes:
- A summary infographic for commissioners
- An education pack which contains all information and guidance someone would need to know about asthma and the new guideline
- A (short) presentation slide set which can be used to 'make the case' to commissioning boards and managers,
- A set of asthma death case studies which highlight why it is so important to get asthma care right, and
- A guideline summary resource which can be shared with primary care services in your local area (First steps to implementing the new asthma guideline).
It is supplemented by a number of other PCRS resources which are available to access in the 'Featured Content' section. These include:
- FeNO: Plan-on-a-page on-demand webinar
- FeNO: Plan-on-a-page article (COMING SOON)
- Updated Asthma SABA slide rule (COMING SOON)
- Patient video: Hear from two PCRS patient reference group members on why it's so important to implement the guideline (COMING SOON)
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Produced: May 2025
We are very grateful to Asthma and Lung UK for supporting us with this toolkit.
First steps to implement the new BTS/NICE/SIGN asthma guideline
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.
On Demand webinar: FeNO Plan on a Page
Are you struggling to persuade your Integrated Care Board (ICB) to fund FeNO testing? With the new BTS/NICE/SIGN asthma guideline recommending FeNO for asthma diagnostic testing, this can create quite a challenging for primary care providers. There can also be uncertainty around when to use it and when not to and many will not be alone in this uncertainty.
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