Diagnosing COPD in general practice

Long-term exposure to risk factors such as tobacco smoking – the most common cause of COPD – and symptoms caused by progressive lung damage are often present before individuals seek a diagnosis. The...

World COPD Day: supporting people to live well with COPD

It is important to ensure from the moment someone presents at their GP practice with symptoms of COPD that they get support for smoking cessation if they smoke. Having a conversation with patients...

New approaches to an old challenge: what can we do about smoking?

Raising the subject of smoking with patients should be standard practice in all healthcare settings, but we know from a study published by Cancer Research UK (2019a) that only 53% of primary care...

Back to school with asthma in 2021

Back to school planning in 2021 may be hampered by a primary care system facing a backlog of care, plus a patient population who may be reluctant to access care. According to surveys by Asthma UK...

Living with long COVID

The new guideline for NICE (2021) recommends that patients presenting with new or ongoing symptoms 4 weeks or later after an initial COVID-19 infection should have the following investigations done: a...

Winter worries

Paediatric A&Es are reporting that they have had the busiest couple of months on record, with one doctor saying ‘We are effectively running a winter-level emergency department response in the...

Understanding the use of pulse oximetry in COVID-19 disease

The fundamental principle in pulse oximetry is that when light is shone through a substance, some of that light is absorbed as it passes through the substance and the light that is not absorbed can be...

Spirometry going forward – should we restart?

As the diagnostic element of the hub is currently only myself undertaking testing, the risk assessment that is recommended has been based on my personal safety and that of my patients. It also...

Supporting people to self-manage their allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis symptoms that are not controlled lead to adverse effects that significantly impact quality of life; these include headache, sore throat, hearing problems, sleep disturbance, poor...

Understanding personal asthma action plans

The National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) (Royal College of Physicians, 2014) investigated the clinical records of 195 adults and children who died of asthma between February 2012 and January 2013....

Fear: an unrecognised symptom of COVID-19

Remote asthma consultations in primary care

In a speech on the future of healthcare delivered in July 2020, Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for health and social care, said that ‘Coronavirus has catalysed deep structural shifts in...