Paediatric asthma care in the UK: continuity of care

Richard Morey

doi:10.3399/bjgp19X705209

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

As a retired GP and grandfather of a 3-year-old asthma sufferer I am troubled and not a little alarmed by the current standard of asthma care being offered today, as described in the article in this month’s journal.¹

The theme running through the article was lack of continuity of care in general practice. I note one case of a 13-year-old with 47 asthma attacks in her last 4.5 years of life who was seen by 16 clinicians at her GP surgery on the 19 occasions she attended because of poor control.

The concluding analysis regarding the Finnish National Asthma Programme that stressed the effectiveness of instituting anti-inflammatory treatment from diagnosis was stark.

Surely this advice, coupled with a single named GP responsible for every child with asthma, would dramatically improve the outcome in these cases and could be established in every surgery. Continuity of care is one of the most precious aspects of general practice but I fear this crucial aspect of modern-day general practice is in decline.

REFERENCE

1.↵
1. Levy ML,
2. Fleming L,
3. Warner JO,
4. Bush A
(2019) Br J Gen Pract, Paediatric asthma care in the UK: fragmented and fatally fallible. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp19X704933.