PSNC has renewed calls for pharmacists to provide more regular asthma support in light of findings that many patients are not receiving adequate care.  

Pharmacy should receive funding to provide regular MURs and annual reviews, PSNC said in response to an Asthma UK report that found that only 14 per cent of 5,878 UK asthma patients surveyed received care that fully met clinical standards based on a British Thoracic Society guideline.  

The report, published on Wednesday (October 16), highlighted that patients without a written action plan were four times more likely to go into hospital but only 24 per cent of patients had been provided with one.

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	PSNC suggested that pharmacists could play a bigger role in asthma care in its vision for community pharmacy, published in August.

The Asthma UK survey, carried out between May and July, further highlighted that pharmacists could help address discrepancies in care, the negotiator said.  

It was keen to partner with a CCG to test the benefits of offering all asthma patients an MUR consultation on a regular basis and providing a NMS when a new medicine was prescribed, said head of NHS services Alastair Buxton.  

Pharmacists could also conduct the annual asthma reviews recommended by Nice, currently provided by GPs, Mr Buxton said. This would increase the number of people receiving the reviews and free up capacity for GPs and nurses, he said.  

Mark Stone, project pharmacist at Devon LPC, said that pharmacies in his area had helped reach asthma patients who were reluctant to visit their surgery and agreed that the sector could take responsibility for carrying out the reviews.   

"We've asked GPs to highlight the patients they can't get in for an annual review, and the pharmacist will look at their medicine use," he told C+D. "There's nothing yet in the contract for pharmacists to conduct a review, but I think with the accessibility and knowledge pharmacy has, we could do them."  

Jenny Gibbs, long-term conditions liaison officer at Bristol CCG, said she would support the idea in principle. A local pilot of pharmacy-led asthma care had produced encouraging results, she told C+D, and there was "tonnes more" the sector could do to support patients – especially in hard-to-reach groups.  

But Ms Gibbs stressed there would also be practical considerations. Pharmacists would not only need additional training, but the lack of shared patient records could prove a stumbling block, she said.  

"You would need to look at agreeing roles with GPs and how the information would be communicated back to surgeries," Ms Gibbs said. "Patients could quite easily go to a different pharmacy each time, so you would need better software systems in place, otherwise you would make a decision without having the patient information to hand."  

Annual asthma reviews include using spirometry to measure the patient's lung function, checking their inhaler technique and checking their medicine adherence, according to Nice.