Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to ensure that patients with asthma are referred for specialist treatment after two courses of oral corticosteroids or 12 courses of short-acting beta-agonists.

Software used in general practice will help identify those patients who might benefit from referral to a specialist service. However, it is for clinicians, using their clinical judgement, to decide when it is appropriate to refer individual patients for specialist treatment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is currently developing a new guideline on asthma management which is expected to be published in June 2017.