RCP: Complacency over asthma care is costing lives

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has called for major improvements to NHS asthma care in order to prevent lives from being lost unnecessarily.

According to its research, nearly half of people who died from asthma between February 2012 and 2013 did not have any medical help during their final asthma attack, while the standard of care received was less than satisfactory in a quarter of these cases.

Triggers for asthma attacks had not been documented among more than half of the patients and 57 percent were not recorded as being under specialist supervision in the year before their deaths.

As such, the RCP called for every hospital and GP practice to have a designated, named clinician for asthma services, better monitoring of asthma control to be implemented, and improved education provided for medical staff to make them aware of the risks.

Dr Anita Donley, clinical vice-president at the RCP, said: "It is vital that we as healthcare professionals support patients in the education and management of their asthma so that they can control it and recognise when it becomes potentially life-threatening."

In the UK, 5.4 million people are currently receiving treatment for asthma, equivalent to around one in every 12 adults, or one in 11 children.