New national audit on childhood asthma published by British Thoracic Society
The National Paediatric Asthma Audit has recently been published by the British Thoracic Society. Highlights of the review include:
- Hospital care of acute wheezing and asthma is ‘efficient and effective’
- Hospital stays are short and majority receive care entirely within emergency department
- Chest X-rays and antibiotics were used more frequently than appropriate according to evidence suggests
- Discharge procedures are deemed inadequate which could be contributing to readmission rate of 15%
- Tobacco smoke exposure is reported in 32% of children – although a significant proportion of hospitals did not provide data on this so this may be higher