About Your Asthma Review

Asthma is an important medical condition. It is common, and although for most it is a mild illness, for some it is very serious and every year over a thousand people die from an asthma attack in the UK.

This document will explain our current system for carrying out asthma reviews. It is important that these happen to ensure asthma is being well managed and we try to review patients at least once a year. Since the pandemic we have not seen many of patients face to face and we are trying to use technology to make the review process more efficient.

How we perform a review

For the majority of patients their asthma is well controlled and they do not need any changes to their treatment. For those who have symptoms or have to use their reliever (blue) inhaler often we would want to try to improve their management to improve their quality of breathing and reduce the chances of a serious asthma attack. For most people, having the right kind of inhaler prescribed can really help.

We plan to use a short on line questionnaire that you can complete on your phone to identify whether we can carry on as normal, or if you need a more in depth review. We will send you a link to this and review your replies. If all is well we can simply sign you off for another year and continue to issue your inhalers. If there are problems identified we will arrange a telephone review appointment. These usually take about ten minutes and we would plan to try and ring you on a particular afternoon to discuss your asthma in more detail.

Assessing your peak flow

In order to really know how your asthma is doing we will ask you to check your peak flow rate in advance. This means using a device to measure how quickly you can empty your lungs. You may be very familiar with this process but if not we can arrange for a device to be left at Carryduff pharmacy and there are clear instructions in how to use it at https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/manage-your-asthma/peak-flow/ Please record your peak flow and have this number ready for your telephone review appointment.

Assessing inhaler technique

We also want to check that you are using your inhaler properly. Most people benefit from a refresher in how to use their inhaler and there are lots of different types of inhaler available – many which have different ways to use. 

You can see an instructional video on your particular inhaler at www.asthma.org.uk/advice/inhaler-videos/ We would encourage you to take 5 minutes before the review to reassure yourself that your technique is good.

During your review

During the review the clinician will chat over your asthma symptoms and inhaler use and together decide on the best way to improve control. They should also discuss what to do if there is a flare up in symptoms and what to do in an emergency. They should be able to answer any other questions you have about your asthma going forward. If things are not easily sorted over the phone we can arrange an in-person appointment to formally examine you and suggest treatment at another time. Sometimes asthma can be very difficult to manage and we may even need to refer you to a specialist.