Yorkshire and Humber demonstrates child asthma improvement

The Local Asthma Impact Project focused on patients of GP practices with higher than average hospital admissions for children with asthma. A group of practices in Hull and Leeds provided a local enhanced service to improve care; while other practices in Wakefield and Kirklees took part in a “best practice pilot”.

Innovations included:

• Providing pocket guides containing information about what to do if a child was having an asthma attack (2,000 of these have been delivered to every school team across the region)
• Training sessions for school staff (over half of the school nursing teams in the region have received training)
• A programme of support including information and resources to hold an asthma assembly in school (over half of the school areas in the region have adopted these)
• asthma policy templates for schools (provided to over half of the school areas)
• emergency procedure guides for staff (provided to all of the school areas).

An Asthma UK statement said evidence of improvement included, at one Wakefield practice, a reduction of 58% in hospital admissions for people with asthma. Across Wakefield and Hull, a group of four practices saved the NHS more than £13,450 (based on a reduction in hospital admissions) over the course of a year, the statement said. Patients also reported improvements in their care.

The project was run by Yorkshire and Humber and Asthma UK. Results were due to be presented at a Child Asthma Summit in Wakefield on 20 March.