Children and Young People's ICS Asthma
Suffolk and North-East Essex
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Project Overview:
We would like to support your practice in a CYP asthma programme that aims to support the development of the Eclipse Risk Stratification program that will enable the pilot practitioners to identify high risk CYP with wheeze / asthma and enable the targeted support that will reduce exacerbations, reduce unplanned visits and improve outcomes, following the model of a successful local initiative.
This will involve identifying and automatically engaging with patients identified as benefiting from lipid-lowering therapy to offer them atorvastatin, as the initial treatment of choice.
This will be conducted in a phased approach.
Why?
Asthma is the most common long-term medical condition in children in the UK, with around 1 in 11 children and young people in the UK having asthma1 . The UK has one of the highest prevalence, emergency admission and death rates for childhood asthma in Europe. 13 children (0-14 years) died from asthma in 2016. In 2017, NICE published a set of guidelines for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Asthma and also for the Management of Stable Asthma in Adults and Children4 .
In 2015, The Royal College of Physicians, looked at deaths from asthma between 1 February 2012 and 31 January 2013 in the UK and published a report (NRAD4)3 identifying a number of avoidable factors in relation to both the care people received and the recognition of risk and avoidable factors relating to patients and their families and environments.
NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ambition is to prevent deaths, reduce the number of admissions and improve the quality of life of CYP with asthma. This will be achieved by improving the accuracy of diagnosis and taking a whole system approach to managing asthma.
How?
Patients will be contacted by SMS on your practice’s behalf by Eclipse, directing them to a lander page outlining the benefits of inhaler optimisation, guiding them to access their secure patient portal (using their NHS number).
Patients can answer a few questions which will enable Eclipse to segment this population into different cohorts for you to consider prescribing an inhaler.
Cohorts
Through Eclipse, you will have access to lists of patients who have responded to the patient engagement:
Patients that would like to start inhaler optimisation
Patients that have declined inhaler optimisation
Patients that are unsure and would like to have a consultation with a healthcare professional
Patients that would not like to start a inhaler but may be interested in an alternative medication
Please note that the prescription will be at the clinical discretion of the prescriber.
The method and outcome of a patient review can be noted within Eclipse to trigger these payments.
EVALUATION: The pilot will run for 6 months after which a full evaluation will be completed. If the pilot proves successful, we will present a business case to the ICB for future funding to roll the project out to further practices. As well as quantitative data, which will be collected via Eclipse, patient reported outcomes and perceptions of the new pathway will be collected through patient questionnaires.
ACTION: By focussing the pilot on our most deprived practices in the areas of greatest asthma mortality, this programme aims to decrease the number or effect of future events on your patients.
If your practice would like to take part: Please complete the below pro forma, expressing your interest and consent for patient engagement.