Inhaler checks

Had an interesting one today with a girl asking for an emergency supply of her salbutamol inhaler.

Now we always check that patients are also using their preventer inhalers, and when they last had a supply of the salbutamol inhaler just to check for signs of overuse or over-reliance on the reliever.

When we checked this one, she had been dispensed two MDIs two days earlier. When I questioned her she told me she had lost them, so what do you do, particularly when you know her asthmatic boyfriend was refused a similar supply the day before because of a definite over-reliance on his reliever?

Well I told her that I would make the supply this time in good faith but that in future she would need to sort this out with the practice.

I also made a call to the practice’s asthma nurse to let her know what was going on and hopefully they will be called in for a review.