Campaigners critical of care for asthmatics

Tuesday 1st December 2009, 11:30AM GMT.

The West Midlands Ambulance Trust, which treats patients in Shropshire, is failing people with asthma by the way patients are monitored and treated, campaigners have claimed today.

Bosses at Asthma UK said the Care Quality Commission’s annual assessment exposed “worrying failures” by the West Midlands Ambulance Trust in its provision of care for asthma sufferers.

The organisation was one of only two trusts in England which received a failed rating in the commission’s study.

Trusts were assessed against five measures, which included whether they measured and recorded respiratory “peak flow” rates and oxygen saturation before treatment.

Asthma UK said it was “particularly concerning” that in the West Midlands only 13 per cent of people had their peak flow measured by the ambulance service.

The group says without taking these measurements at the outset, ambulance crews would have difficulty in assessing signs of response to treatment or recognising whether someone’s condition was deteriorating.

A high proportion of people with asthma in the West Midlands also missed out on vital medicines, the report said.

West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman Claire Thomas said: “Since the CQC studied our data, which is now over a year old, the trust has made significant improvements in the way that it deals with asthma patients.

“We recognise that there is still room for further improvement.”

View more: Shropshire news, West Midlands Ambulance Service news.