A new analysis from Asthma UK shows that more than 22,000 people with asthma have been prescribed inhalers in an unsafe way, as reported by News Medical.
Last year’s National Review of Asthma Deaths highlighted prescribing errors in nearly half of asthma deaths in primary care (47%). Now new analysis from Asthma UK, based on data from over 500 UK GP practices, reveals evidence that over 22,000 people with asthma in the UK, including 2,000 children, have been prescribed medicines (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.
In addition, the report indicates that almost 100,000 people with asthma have been prescribed too many short-acting reliever inhalers (more than 12 in a year) without national clinical guidelines being followed, leaving them at risk of life threatening asthma attacks.
This is again what happens when there people prescribing that poorly trained
Patients need adequate training on the use of inhalers for them to be effective. However, if the wrong combination of asthma medications are being prescribed, it still attests to the problem of proper assessment, treatment and follow- up plans.