PCNs will be rewarded for increased dry powder inhaler and soft mist inhaler prescribing

To minimise inhaler carbon emissions across the NHS, primary care networks (PCNs) will be rewarded for increased dry powder inhaler and soft mist inhaler prescribing from October 2021. In addition, PCNs will be rewarded for increased prescribing of salbutamol metered dose inhalers as part of a group of incentivised targets.

Up to £12.2m can be claimed by PCNs in 2021/22 and up to 16m in 2022/23 from the Investment and Impact Fund.

As well as the incentives, PCNs will be rewarded, clinically indicated, for increasing the percentage of asthma patients who have frequently been prescribed an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS).

Head of policy and external affairs, Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, Harriet Edwards, stated: “People with asthma should have inhalers that are most suited to them and that will help protect them from a life-threatening asthma attack.”

NHSE&I stated: “Our aim is that, in line with best practice in other European countries, by 2023/24, only twenty-five per cent of non-salbutamol inhalers prescribed will be MDIs.”