A leading charity has revealed that almost 100,000 asthma patients in the UK have been prescribed too many short-acting reliever inhalers by doctors who haven’t followed clinical guidelines leaving patients vulnerable to life threatening asthma attacks.
Further, the analysis from Asthma UK based on data from over 500 UK GP practices provides evidence that over 22,000 asthma patients in the UK including 2,000 children, have been prescribed long-acting reliever inhalers in a way that is so unsafe they have a ‘black box warning’ in the USA due to the risk they pose to the lives of people with asthma.
The charity is quick to point out that asthma medication is safe, but the way in which they are prescribed puts patients at risk of life threatening attacks. The charity cautions that it is dangerous to use a long-acting reliever inhaler alone (without a steroid preventer inhaler or as a combination inhaler) because a long-acting reliever inhaler helps to keep the airways open but does not treat the underlying inflammation. This leaves the airways of people with asthma inflamed and more likely to react to triggers such as pollen or pollution, putting them at risk of having a potentially life-threatening asthma attack. If someone with asthma is prescribed more than 12 short-acting reliever inhalers in a year (using it more than 3 times each week) without seeing a doctor it is a key indicator that they are not managing their condition and that their treatment needs reviewing.
Kay Boycott, Chief Executive of Asthma UK, calls the practice of putting lives of people with asthma at risk by way of unsafe prescription as simply ‘unacceptable’. He adds that with UK having some of the highest mortality rates for asthma in Western Europe, levels of unsafe prescribing identified in our report today must be stopped.
He called upon the healthcare professionals to review their systems and urgently recall patients who have been prescribed long-acting reliever inhalers on their own without a steroid preventer, or not as a combination inhaler.
Boycott called upon NHS bodies to ensure systems are in place to stop unsafe asthma prescribing from happening and implement all the recommendations from the National Review of Asthma Deaths to improve patient safety and end complacency in asthma care.
Ms Boycott adds: “Anyone with asthma who is concerned by these findings should try not to worry – they are not in any immediate danger. However, it is important that people with asthma really understand their medicines and take an active role in managing their medication. They should check if their inhaler includes Salmeterol, Formoterol or Tiotropium bromide as the only active ingredient. If they are taking this without a steroid preventer inhaler, or not as a combination inhaler, they need to contact their GP right away. Anyone who is using their reliever inhaler more than 3 times a week and hasn’t had a recent review should contact their GP as soon as possible. If people are not sure if this applies to them, they should visit the Asthma UK website for more information or call the Asthma UK Helpline for advice and support on 0800 121 62 44.”
Dr Mark Levy, GP and author of The National Review of Asthma Deaths, says: “Asthma UK’s report is welcome as it echoes the findings from the National Review of Asthma Deaths. There is widespread failure to recognise risk of attacks and therefore asthma death. Yet the reality is that deaths can be prevented when symptoms are managed effectively, with safe use of asthma medicines and in partnership with the patient.”
