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Keeping an inhaler for emergency use in schools will have several benefits, according to the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (UK MHRA). It could prevent an unnecessary and traumatic trip to the hospital and potentially save life, it added. MHRA has recommended that the use of emergency inhalers be supported by appropriate protocols. The Department of Health and stakeholders such as Asthma UK have developed guidance for schools in England on using emergency inhalers, which could form the basis of any school protocol or policy. The move follows a public consultation where there was overwhelming support for changing the regulations to allow schools to carry emergency inhalers. A document summarising the responses from the public consultation said that under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, asthma inhalers were prescription-only medicines and schools could not hold their own stock of inhalers for use in emergencies. “Approximately 20 children of school age in England and Wales die every year from asthma and most deaths occur before the child reaches hospital.
A survey by Asthma UK found that 64 per cent of children with asthma have at some point been unable to access a working reliever inhaler in school, having either forgotten, lost, broken or run out of their own. 62 per cent of children with asthma have had an asthma attack while at school,” it added.
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