It’s World Asthma Day today (Wednesday 5 May) and our children’s asthma nurses are visiting our children’s wards and emergency departments, tackling misconceptions around inhaler use.

They are educating our teams on ensuring asthma patients take their inhalers correctly, using a spacer, which ensures the medication gets to the right place (pictured above). They will be sharing information on the importance of preventer inhalers, which help children manage their condition and avoid life-threatening asthma attacks.

Our team is also supporting national #Rightinhalerimage campaign, launched by the Healthy London Partnership, to encourage everyone, including the media, to do their bit by using images of correct inhaler use – using the right inhaler, at the right time, in the right way.

Rachael Young, one of our clinical nurse specialists said: “Our asthma patients generally have two inhalers; a preventer, which can be purple, red, or brown, and a reliever/rescue inhaler, often blue, which people are more familiar with.

“The #Rightinhalerimage campaign is focusing on pictures of therapeutic treatments to highlight the importance of prescribed treatments for asthma. Preventer inhalers are often forgotten about; however, they’re really important as they reduce inflammation.”

In the run-up to World Asthma Day, our asthma clinical nurse specialists were supported by our Play team and emergency departments to ensure the correct images are displayed in our hospitals, to prevent confusion for our patients.

Lung diseases including asthma are responsible for more than 700,000 hospital admissions each year, and half of those with respiratory conditions manage it with inhalers. That’s why correct use is so important; it can improve health and ultimately, save lives.

Read more about our asthma clinical nurse specialists.