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Expert advice on how all members of the primary are team can improve detection of patients at risk of lung cancer is set out in a new suite of articles published by PCRS.

PCRS offer two posters available for download and use in practice surgeries and pharmacies.  The posters highlight the benefit of regular preventer inhaler therapy and a reduction in reliance on short -acting reliever inhalers.  Both posters recommend talking to the practice nurse or pharmacist if patients feel they are reliant on their reliever inhaler more than three times per week of if asthma symptoms are frequent. The posters can be downloaded and printed using a colour printer.  Posters are A4 in size for convenience of local printing.

In this article, updated for asthma in November 2019, we discuss the building blocks of a good asthma review focusing on:

Case Study 1 - Noel Baxter Locum GP and PCRS Policy Lead discusses the importance of system change in the practice particularly around the reviewing and re-authorising of repeat prescriptions for short acting beta-2-agonsts Case Study 2 - Frances Barrett, Independent respiratory specialist nurse reports on a project to tackle SABA overuse in a practice

The playing cards on these slides and downloadable PDF playing cards are a way to trigger conversations with healthcare teams, and between pharmacists and patients regarding the use of/reliance on SABA inhalers. We invite you to use them to start a discussion!

In this article for Primary Care Respiratory Academy, Noel Baxter describes the nine good care processes developed by a multidisciplinary and integrated respiratory team in Lambeth and Southwark with a novel way to disseminate the measures and show improvement. Download the asthma review MS Excel template described in the article. Download the asthma value pyramid.

Patients with respiratory symptoms and disease deserve a correct diagnosis and correct guideline driven care that is standardized, patient focused, delivered by a Health Care Professional (HCP) with suitable training and experience, at a site and within an appropriate timeframe to meet their needs. Sadly, patient groups such as the British Lung Foundation (BLF) and Asthma UK have recognised that too often this is not the case.

PCRS supports the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation that people at high risk of lung cancer have screening and encourage the committee to ensure that the screening programme maximises opportunities for diagnosis of lung disease beyond lung cancer and to ensure ongoing provision of smoking cessation services.

In this article Carol Stonham outlines her plans as the new chair for PCRS including her ambitions around cleaner and kinder respiratory healthcare.