Complacency over asthma care among both patients and clinicians is leading to thousands of needless deaths, shows a new report. Charlotte Rixon investigates

Experts are calling for urgent improvements in the care of people with asthma to help prevent thousands of deaths from the condition each year. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) analysed a sample of data from the National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) 2012/13, which revealed that almost half of those who had died from asthma did not receive medical assistance during their final attack, while a third did not appear to have sought help before they died.

Improving care

The NRAD found that a quarter of the deceased patients had received less than satisfactory care, while there was room for improvement in most cases. Over half had not been under specialist supervision, while the same proportion had only been treated for mild to moderate asthma, indicating that neither doctors nor patients had recognised the severity of the condition.

To improve asthma care, the RCP has called for better education among healthcare professionals and patients on spotting the signs of poor asthma control and responding correctly during an attack. It also recommends that hospitals and general practices appoint a named clinician for asthma services and that all patients receive a personal asthma plan.

Pharmacy support

In response, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) have highlighted community pharmacy’s valuable role in helping asthma patients to gain greater control over their condition – for example, through MURs or stop smoking services. The RCP report uncovered widespread underuse of preventer inhalers and over-reliance on reliever inhalers among those who had died, while nearly one in five had been smokers.

Anna Murphy, RPS consultant respiratory pharmacist, said: “Identifying the avoidable risk factors, inhaler technique checks, optimisation of treatment and help with understanding of asthma plans for patients should be offered routinely.”

Alistair Buxton, PSNC head of NHS Services, urged the NHS to “build on the MUR service by expanding the support available to people with asthma” and added that pharmacy teams could “provide more support for people with asthma following discharge from hospital”.

A study carried out on the Isle of Wight found that asthma MURs reduced asthma-related hospital admissions by more than 50 per cent in three months.