London’s #AskAboutAsthma campaign is set to return between the 16 – 22 September 2019
1 in 10 children and young people in London have asthma but less than half of these have an asthma management plan or know how to use their inhaler correctly.
Healthy London Partnership and the NHS in London, supported by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will once again be running London’s #AskAboutAsthma campaign, now in its third year, to help improve the lives of those living with asthma in the capital.
The campaign, which coincides with children and young people returning to school and the highest peak of hospital admissions for asthma, aims to encourage all children and young people to ask for advice to help them manage their asthma effectively.
The three simple steps that can help:
- Have an asthma management plan. The plan helps identify the right colour inhaler and dosage and the time to seek emergency help.
- Be able to use an inhaler effectively.
- Have an annual asthma review.
Speaking about the return of the campaign, Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS London Region Medical Director, said:
“This past year, the NHS in London has worked with children, young people, their families, schools and local councils to improve asthma care. This includes innovations such as supplying primary and secondary schools with emergency asthma school bags, group consultations, and work with councils and the Mayor of London on air pollution. Additionally, partnership working with local Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships has led to the creation of networks across London in which patients, professionals and services come together to bring about improvement.
“As a paediatrician and Medical Director for London, I am delighted that the #AskAboutAsthma campaign will return in September for a third year. The campaign will grow and reinforce the movement of organisations and people who are focussed on implementing the simple steps everyone can take to consistently provide excellent asthma care to children and young people and help them live healthier, more active lives.”
#OneThingLDN… for #AskAboutAsthma
This year the #AskAboutAsthma campaign is focusing on the message of ‘One Thing LDN’ – asking Londoners what they have done, will do or would like to see happen to improve asthma care or air quality for CYP in London.
To let us know your One Thing message, follow these simple steps.
What we are doing to tackle asthma in London
- We have developed a set of ambitions for how asthma care should be delivered across the city.
- The London asthma standards for children and young people bring together these ambitions for London with national and local standards.
- The online London asthma toolkit is available to support healthcare professionals, commissioners, schools, parents, carers, children and young people in London implement the asthma standards for children and young people.
- We are supporting NHS organisations to reduce their contribution to air pollution through the HLP air pollution reduction toolkit. This provides simple suggestions for how NHS organisations can reduce their contribution to air pollution.
- Research to understand preventable factors involved in an asthma attack is also underway as part of an audit of asthma attack incidences in general practice, urgent care centres and A&Es.
How Londoners can help to reduce pollution
There are many ways all Londoners can help too, reducing their impact on air pollution in the city:
- Cycle to work – Santander Cycles is a public bicycle hire scheme in London with over 11,500 bikes across London.
- Car sharing and hiring – Zipcar has hundreds of electric cars in its fleet, parked across London.
- Avoid food waste – Toogoodtogo is an app that signposts people to food which is sold at reduced prices from food stores at the end of the day to avoid food waste.
- Reuse / share – Streetbank is a platform for sharing or giving away items you don’t use very often with your neighbours, rather than buying more things you won’t use.
- Volunteer – National Park City is a group of volunteers across London aiming to make London a greener and healthier place to live.
- Use Click Collect for deliveries – use instead of having items delivered to your home or work which reduces congestion in London.
- Use indoor air-cleaning plants – the NASA Clean Air Study showed that that certain plants can clean indoor air.