The overuse of blue, reliever inhalers such as Ventolin inhaler in patients with asthma is a lot higher in the UK than other European countries and it is also linked to an increased risk of asthma attacks and deaths.
Patients with asthma who need to use their blue inhaler twice a week or more require a review as this can be a sign of poor asthma control and that their inhalers are not effective in managing their asthma. To improve asthma outcomes, we are monitoring the issuing of prescriptions for these inhalers and patients with asthma who require 5 of these inhalers over a 12-month period or 3 of these inhalers over a 6-month period will be contacted by the surgery to be booked in for an asthma review.
