The action plan can be printed out in the practice and given to the patient and an electronic version saved on the patient’s notes for the healthcare professional to bring up at their next asthma review.
Kay Boycott, Chief Executive of Asthma UK, says: “Nobody with asthma should leave their GP surgery without an asthma action plan. Research shows you’re four times more likely to end up in hospital without one - yet shockingly, only 22% of people with asthma have an action plan. This new system will change that by ensuring that GPs and nurses can generate one directly through the EMIS system itself – and it can’t come soon enough. This is a no cost, practical solution to save time in appointments as well as proving better care for people with asthma. ”
In addition to the plan sitting within the software, the GP or practice nurse will also be alerted if the patient does not have an action plan and prompted to complete one. According to the NICE Asthma Quality Standard guidelines, everyone with asthma should receive a written asthma action plan from their doctor or asthma nurse, so they know how to recognise that their asthma is getting worse and what steps to take to bring it back under control.
Dr Shaun O’Hanlon, Chief Medical Officer at EMIS Group: “We are delighted to work with Asthma UK on this important tool to help GPs and nurses improve asthma care in partnership with their patients. EMIS web is a highly flexible system, and we are always working with clinicians to enhance our software to enable them to drive up standards of care and improve efficiency.”
Kay Boycott adds: “Using an Asthma UK action plan as part of an asthma review gives patients the critical information they need to manage their condition effectively. In the UK today, every ten seconds someone has a potentially life threatening asthma attack and still three people die every day. Tragically the majority of these could be prevented with the right basic care. Our ultimate aim is to make the NHS asthma review the most effective in the world at preventing potentially life threatening asthma attacks.”
