Improved asthma and dementia care under new scheme

New NHS England figures have shown that most community pharmacies in England are now providing improved asthma and dementia care.

The uptake figures reveal that 97 per cent (11,410) of community pharmacies are now signed up to the Quality Payments Scheme, providing an incentive to deliver new clinical services, such as providing asthma checks and undertaking training to become more dementia aware.

Since April 2017, more than 12,500 asthma patients at high risk of suffering a severe asthma attack have been identified and referred for a full asthma review, whilst 70,000 pharmacy staff have become ‘Dementia Friends’ in order to offer greater awareness regarding the needs of people with dementia. ​

Additionally, figures highlight that 11,406 pharmacies are now able to receive and dispense prescriptions via the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), meaning 57 per cent of all prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies are now done this way. Meanwhile, NHSMail is now available in 95 per cent of all community pharmacies and 11,276 pharmacies are now set up to receive real time referrals from NHS111 to support urgent and self-care cases.

Mike Morgan, NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Respiratory Services, said: “Asthma is a long-term condition that requires constant review and adjustment by the patient and the health professional. Serious attacks of asthma should not be treated as one-off episodes but seen as a failure of chronic care. These attacks, which may be fatal, can often be predicted by warning signs. Frontline community pharmacists are in an excellent position to give potentially life-saving advice and it’s great to that this scheme has delivered this significant step forward in patient care.”