National Paediatric Asthma Collaborative Case Study

Paediatric high volume conditions care pathways for Asthma and Bronchiolitis.
Lead
South East Coast Strategic Clinical Network
Partners
Clinicians, commissioners, patient groups and voluntary sector organisations.
Background
  1. This work on pathways for acute conditions started in 2011 when West Sussex began to work with the Institute for Innovation and Improvement on Emergency and Urgent Care. Dr Tim Fooks and Lorraine Mulroney (QIL) led on this work and have SINCE widened implementation across Kent Surrey and Sussex.

Action
The transition programme of work was aimed to both improve quality of care and reduce variation in health outcomes for young people living with long term conditions who are transitioning into adult services.
Outcomes
  1. The production of 5 pathways (asthma, bronchiolitis, fever, head injury and D&V)
  1. The production of a best practice pathway for each Long Term Condition.
  1. Health Education England KSS recognised the need for further education in primary care on paediatric asthma management and commissioned 6 workshops from Education for Health, 2 in each county, to upskill the workforce a total of 120 primary care clinicians have attended.
  1. An E Learning resource is being developed in collaboration with HEE KSS for Fever Bronchiolitis and D and V. This is due to be available early April.

Next Steps?
  • We hope to be able to disseminate the transition best practice pathway widely across KSS however this will be dependent on the future of the SCN workforce.
  • This work has been discussed and supported by our commissioner’s forum for CYP.

What was learnt?
  • There was a lot of enthusiasm for this work however it was a challenge to get engagement across such a wide geographical area and required the QILs and clinical leads to build relationships.
  • Support was required from graphic designers and our website designers with the pathways and with new data coming out every day it can be a challenge to keep abreast of developments.
  • Difficulty was experienced in data gathering and highlighted once again the significant problem of coding issues for admissions and diagnosis.

Top Tips
  • Convening clinical advisory groups/working groups ensured engagement and ownership by clinicians and in the long term will guarantee that the documents are used in clinical practice.
  • Engaging with young people for the transition work took time and effort but gave a valuable insight into what they want from health care, not what we think they want.

Further Information
The asthma and bronchiolitis pathways can been seen on the SCN website SCN website
Contact
Contact the SEC
Dr Tim Fooks and Edwina Wooler – SCN Clinical Leads.
Christine Mc Dermott Costal West Sussex CCG – Support for Pathways
Lorraine Mulroney and Jan Pathan Quality Improvement Leads (QILS)