Those of us who watched Top Gun and salivated over either Tom Cruise or Kelly McGillis in our youths will understand that sometimes having your breath taken away is a pleasurable experience. Most of the time, it isn’t, and it needs treating.
The snag is that adherence to respiratory treatment is notoriously poor, and it isn’t easy to understand why.
We’ve tended to concentrate on respiratory technique – and there’s plenty to improve there – but there’s also the question of enhancing the patients’ understanding of the disease and its treatment.
Toby Capstick (Lead Respiratory Pharmacist, Leeds Teaching Hospitals) will be leading a Satellite Session at the Pharmacy Management National Forum (November 18th)… examining how to identify barriers to medicines use in respiratory patients and how Community Pharmacy services can perform an essential service to optimise medicines use.