Community pharmacists in London can now access free online training to support their work caring for children and young people with asthma.

Healthy London Partnership has launched a new online asthma learning hub to enable pharmacists to further develop their skills in supporting children and young people with asthma, initially around inhaler technique assessments.  

Learning sessions, developed with community pharmacists in London, include the impact of asthma on children and young people, effective drug delivery and inhaler technique. Highlighted is how MURs and the NMS can be used to assess inhaler technique and educate children, young people and their carers about how to use their inhalers correctly.

Tracy Parr, head of the Children and Young People’s programme at Healthy London Partnership, said more than 200,000 children in London have asthma but care is still inconsistent across the capital.

“There are still issues with asthma care for children and young people in London, with less than 52 per cent of children having an asthma action plan, too many preventable hospital admissions and not enough education for families and schools,” she said.

“An asthma audit carried out across London pharmacies in 2015 found that one in four children had requested emergency salbutamol inhalers in the last 12 months. These requests suggest children and young people are struggling to manage and control their asthma, which in turn indicates an increased chance of an asthma attack.

 “Community pharmacists in London contributed to the content and design of the learning hub and we hope all pharmacists in the capital find it a useful tool to support their work caring for children and young people with asthma.”

The learning hub aims to complement Healthy London Partnership’s wider asthma toolkit, which launched in May to provide GPs, pharmacists, schools and hospital staff in London with practical resources and guidance they need to improve children’s asthma care.

Developed by Healthy London Partnership and Education for Health with funding from Health Education England, the hub can be accessed from the pharmacy section of the asthma toolkit.

Children and young people are struggling to manage and control their asthma