Newham – Enhanced community pharmacy service for children with asthma and wheeze

We would like to remind practices that the Newham enhanced community pharmacy service for children with asthma and wheeze is still in operation and we encourage all Newham practices to signpost eligible patients to the service.

Participating community pharmacies in Newham are conducting face to face consultations with eligible children, providing information on the impacts of air pollution on health to children with asthma/wheeze, as well as discussing other key aspects of the child’s asthma care.

Please be aware that we currently have 13 participating pharmacies, therefore your patients may not be able to access the service from their usual pharmacy. Participating pharmacists have received additional training in order to deliver this service.

Participating community pharmacies will also identify eligible patients opportunistically when they collect their asthma medications. Newham GPs can also signpost eligible patients to the service. The eligibility criteria are:

Any child under 18 years old who is prescribed an inhaler (do not require a formal diagnosis of asthma) and at least one of the following criteria:  

• Children under 8 years old  
• Prescribed more than 3 salbutamol/SABA inhalers in the last year  
• Prescribed 2 or more courses of oral steroids in the last year  
• Prescribed montelukast or Seretide  
• Prescribed ONLY a salbutamol/SABA inhaler  
• Prescribed or using nebulisers at home  
• Prescribed a dry powder inhaler. 

In order to assist you in signposting your patients to this service, we have developed a webpage with a summary of the service and a full list of participating pharmacies that people can book an appointment without GP referral: Free sessions for Newham children with Asthma and Wheeze.

We have developed an AccuRx template for you to send to any eligible patients which includes a link to the website. If you have any queries regarding this service, please do not hesitate to contact the project lead Dr Rachel Parker at rachel.parker8@nhs.net