Launched Today - a Good Practice Guide for Asthma in Adults

Launched today - a Good practice guide for asthma in adults

To help improve the quality of asthma care, NHS Primary Care Commissioning has produced ‘Designing and commissioning services for adults with asthma: A good practice guide’ with input from the major professional bodies, patient groups and health service managers. The document is designed to aid strategic leaders and commissioners, together with people working in every area of NHS provision from primary care and community health to acute services. It translates key points from the British Asthma Guideline into meaningful actions that commissioners can take to improve the quality of care.

It sets out the 15 key aspects of care that good asthma services need to include. Alongside these, the guide outlines the detailed factors that commissioners and service developers need to include for each element of the service. It also has links to examples of good practice, showing how quality care can be implemented.

PCRS-UK has been involved in the development of this publication through having representatives on the Department of Health working group, the Asthma Steering Group. We are very grateful to Dr Duncan Keeley and June Roberts for providing their primary care perspective and expertise into the work of this group.

As clinicians are becoming increasingly involved in commissioning, we think this publication will help the dialogue between clinicians and commissioners by highlighting some key areas where the commissioning process could help to drive improved outcomes for people with asthma. Ensuring best practice is incorporated into commissioning plans, and that there is a real focus on improving outcomes will enable clinicians and commissioners to work together to a common agenda.

We suggest you review the document, and consider who you could meet with to discuss how to use it to drive improved services locally – whether a clinician or manager who influences respiratory service design locally, a local commissioner in your Commissioning Support Unit, or a commissioner in your local PCT/CCG or cluster.

You can access the Good practice guide on the PCC website HERE PCRS-UK has a wide range of resources to support clinicians in improving the quality of care for people with asthma CLICK HERE.

We are particularly keen to support our members who influence respiratory care beyond their practice boundaries. If you are interested in hearing more about the Respiratory Leader programme, and a workshop in November focused on developing influencing and negotiating skills in working with CCGs, please contact Mel Whiting or visit our website.

Primary Care Respiratory Society UK Secretariat

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The Primary Care Respiratory Society, formerly known as the General Practice Airways Group, is a registered charity (Charity No: 1098117) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England (Company No: 4298947) VAT Registration Number: 866 1543 09 Registered offices: 2 Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4AP Address for correspondence: PCRS-UK, Smithy House, Waterbeck, Lockerbie, DG11 3EY Telephone: +44 (0)121 767 Facsimile: +44(0)121 336 1914 1928 Website: http://www.pcrs- Email: [email protected] uk.org

The Primary Care Respiratory Society UK is grateful to its corporate supporters including Allen & Hanburys (the respiratory division of GlaxoSmithKline), Almirall Ltd, AstraZeneca UK Ltd, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd / Pfizer Ltd, Chiesi Ltd, Napp Pharmaceuticals, Novartis UK, Orion Pharma (UK) Ltd and TEVA UK Ltd for their financial support which supports the core activities of the Charity and allows the PCRS- UK to make its services either freely available or at greatly reduced rates to its members.

The Primary Care Respiratory Society UK is grateful to Boehringer-Ingelheim Ltd and Pfizer Ltd for their financial support in the provision of an educational grant to support the PCRS-UK immediate news service.