Managing Asthma in Primary Care

Asthma is a common long-term respiratory condition which causes significant morbidity and mortality with UK mortality being amongst the highest in Europe (Asthma UK 2019a). The annual cost of asthma to the NHS is in excess of £1.1 billion, the vast majority of this relates to prescription costs and the estimated 6.4 million consultations in UK primary care settings (Mukherjee et al 2016). As the bulk of asthma care is undertaken in the community setting, general practice nurses (GPN’s) who have been suitably educated are ideally placed to provide person centred asthma care for individuals and their families