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Quick-reference guide to support GP asthma care
The suite of new resources will support GPs with the latest recommendations for asthma care.
The new information sheets cover key updates to the Australian Asthma Handbook.
A suite of new resources released this week will support GPs to act on the latest recommendations for asthma diagnosis and management.
Produced by the National Asthma Council (NAC), the five information sheets provide a quick-reference guide to the latest Australian Asthma Handbook. They also contain messaging to help communicate these changes to patients.
The updated handbook was launched in September last year and includes a number of new recommendations for GPs, including moving away from reliance on short-acting beta2 agonists (SABA) or ‘blue puffers’ for adults and adolescents.
The NAC information sheets cover five key areas:
Dr Brett Montgomery, the newly appointed Chair of the National Asthma Council Australia Guidelines Committee, said the new resources will be highly valued by busy GPs.
‘The information sheets convey practical, readily accessible information on priority topics of the
Australian Asthma Handbook to help clinicians identify the appropriate management approaches in consultations and to help to adopt the handbook recommendations in everyday practice,’ he said.
A GP based in Western Australia, Dr Montgomery said one challenge GPs face with changes in routine practice is helping patients to understand and adapt.
‘The latest handbook recommends some significant changes, and sometimes patients can be sceptical or fearful of change.
‘The key messages for patients in these resources will be really handy in my practice, as I’ll be able to show patients in plain language that the changes I’m suggesting are backed by evidence and experts,’ he said.
Dr Michael Tam, a member of the RACGP Expert Committee – Quality Care, agreed that helping patients understand changes of this scale can take time.
‘A lot of people will feel that they’ve been very well managed on what they’re used to, so some of these changes may not be entirely welcome for patients because they feel like they know what they’re doing,’ he told
newsGP.
‘Taking the time to have discussions, firstly about the changes and potentially about some of the logic behind the changes, will be helpful.
‘This does represent a fairly large change in the community view of how asthma will be managed, so having more materials supporting GPs, and for GPs supporting their patients, is very helpful.’
While the resources offer a convenient summary of key recommendations and information, the NAC recommends GPs consult the
Australian Asthma Handbook for detailed guidance on asthma care.
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