The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7216 p384
21 September 2002

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GPs and nurses need more guidance to assist patients switch inhalers

Primary care staff need more detailed information on the pharmaceutical issues involved in switching patients to different inhalers, according to research presented at this week's European Respiratory Society annual congress in Stockholm.

Researchers at the Aintree University Hospital chest clinic in Liverpool surveyed 1,460 patients, 147 GPs and 88 practice nurses. Patients were asked about information given to them when they were switched to CFC-free inhalers, including whether they had received anything in writing.

Just over half the patients (59 per cent) believed that they had received enough information to cope with the transition, while 89 per cent of GPs and 90 per cent of practice nurses believed that the information had been adequate. Only a third of patients were given written information although the majority of GPs and all the nurses thought they had received it.

However, the changeover from one inhaler to another was much smoother for patients than primary care staff thought it was. Just 19 per cent of patients said their new inhaler tasted worse, while 18 per cent said it worked less effectively. In contrast, when asked to estimate the number of patients they thought were experiencing reduced effectiveness of the new products, GPs estimated 47 per cent and nurses estimated 35 per cent.

The researchers suggest primary care staff need more detailed information on the pharmaceutical issues involved in such changes, especially in relation to the phasing in of CFC-free steroid inhalers.

Eileen McShane, study co-author and respiratory nurse specialist at the Aintree chest clinic, said: "Generally, GPs and practice nurses overestimated the level of information patients received. They thought the information was getting through to the patients but it wasn't. We are currently going through a similar, and if anything more complicated, switch for steroid inhalers, and those providing such information need to make sure it is meeting patients' needs."