The Asthma biologics programme is looking at the whole patient pathway for patients with severe asthma. This section focuses on primary care and understanding the landscape around severe asthma care. This includes issues around patient identification, management and referral for assessment of biologic suitability across the entire patient pathway.
Primary care healthcare professional training
Education/training– Cogora have been commissioned to deliver two tailored educational modules about Identifying and Managing Uncontrolled Asthma and Management of Non-Adherence. The resources being developed include:
2 learning modules
– NEW! Identifying and managing uncontrolled asthma
– Management of non-adherence
3 live webinars
– Managing uncontrolled asthma: with talks from Beverly Bostock and Clare Adams. Watch the webinar.
– Identifying and managing barriers to asthma medication adherence: with talks from Graninne d’Ancona and Anna Murphy. Watch the webinar.
– Consensus pathway for managing uncontrolled and severe asthma. With presentations from Andy Menzies-Gow, Steve Holmes, Deepak Subramanian and David Jackson. Watch the webinar.
2 podcasts
– The HASTE tool. Listen now! Uncontrolled asthma patients can be difficult to identify in primary care for several reasons, meaning patients who could benefit from secondary care are missed. Check out this podcast with Beverley Bostock and Kerry Mills, who take you through their step-by-step HASTE tool created to aid primary care clinicians in reviewing patients with uncontrolled asthma and knowing when to refer. Make HASTE and refer!
– NEW!! Asthma: need-to-knows Listen now! In this second podcast from the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative, Beverley Bostock (Advanced Nurse Practitioner), Grainne d’Ancona (Consultant Pharmacist), and Hitasha Rupani (Respiratory Consultant in a Severe Asthma Centre) give you an excellent summary of the content covered in the other educational resources so far. From understanding and diagnosing asthma, to optimising care and the referral process, this is a great round up of all the ‘need-to-knows’. The team also revisit some useful tools for treatment, including H.A.S.T.E and SPECTRA, and suggest some key resources to further your knowledge.
Primary care healthcare professional resources
Coming up!
NHSBSA prednisolone dashboard and linked patient identification process – Can be used by primary care networks or practice pharmacists to identify individual patients prescribed an inhaler and on high prednisolone doses. Please get in touch with your local AHSN lead for further details and discuss potential opportunities for improvement.
Respiratory structured medication review template – A template to support primary care clinicians carry out a comprehensive respiratory medication review and for this review to be integrated into a patient’s medical record. Please get in touch with your local AHSN lead for further details and discuss potential opportunities for improvement.
Available resources
Refer ID – Asthma Referral Identifier– For users of GP notebook a useful referral decision tool has been developed by Astrazeneca based on Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Global Strategy for Asthma Management Prevention 2020.
Primary Care Investment and Impact Fund
From October 2021, four new respiratory indicators have been included in the Primary Care Network contract that supports improvement of respiratory care and health outcomes.
Publications
- Digital asthma: Re-imagining primary care from Asthma UK / British Lung Foundation Partnership
- Poorly controlled and severe asthma: triggers for referral for adult or paediatric specialist care – a PCRS pragmatic guide
- Winter 2021 Primary Care Respiratory Update from the Primary Care Respiratory Society
- Position paper on optimising inhaler technique remotely from the Taskforce for Lung Health
- Inhaler Standards and Competency Document from the UK Inhaler Group
Patient information leaflets – UPDATED May 2022
- Inhalers for asthma: patient decision aid
- Understand your asthma. Find translations in:
- Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO): Your asthma inflammation test explained. Find translations in: