Can someone clarify the asthma situation?

[Iremembertheelderlykoreanlady]

At first people with asthma were in group 6

Then they weren't

Now apparently people who use a brown preventer inhaler are back in group 6.

I used to use a brown inhaler but was using my blue one too much (asthma was not controlled) so they moved me to symbicort which is a combined inhaler.

So am I on the list for group 6 or not, as I don't use a brown inhaler anymore.

Does anyone know or could link to the guidance?

I called my GP today who said I’m not in any of the top 9 groups. Steroid inhaler and ventolin here.

Gutted and a bit fucked off tbh, it seems to differ so much by Area

For whoever asked.

Text from my GP, with a link to book at the local GP hub.

I'm 36. I do also have high BMI though so not 100% sure it's because of the asthma. I'm on a combination inhaler (steroid and bronchdialator)

My OH got the text at exactly the same time. He has high BMI and type 2 diabetes.

Gutted and a bit fucked off tbh, it seems to differ so much by Area

I don't blame you!

I have been to hospital once with an attack but not recently. And I've had steroids but not in the last year. I'm under 50 and my BMI is under 40 (but over 25). I have seen my nurse several times this year and had a few changes of meds as my asthma wasn't controlled. I am always offered the flu jab. I've been so anxious about Covid and I'm so pleased, and shocked, to have been invited. Keep panicking they are going to take the appointment off me.

Me too!! I thought I was the only one this paranoid 🤣

Glad to hear that some people are getting invited.

I'm starting to regret skipping my last asthma review now - I was called last spring for a face to face appointment, and I declined because I didn't want to risk going into the surgery for a routine appointment.

It really does seem to vary by GP surgery then and how they are interpreting the guidance.

I have two rare genetic disorders as well as asthma. Although the genetic disorders probably aren't an issue I can help but feel like I have a cocktail of issues and will feel calmer once vaccinated.

I'm early 30s so will have to wait a long while if done by age.

I take 2 puffs of Fostaire morning and evening and have a blue reliever I can use anytime. I used to have brown one but it did not control wheezing very well so moved to Fostaire. Not sure what group I'm in but will be 60 in August.

I have asthma, I don't know what group
I am in but I have been called for my jab next week. I am in the SW

I’ve been informed by my GP today that as my asthma is currently controlled (not been anywhere to catch a cold which is my trigger) I won’t be getting the vaccine anytime soon.

His words were that even though those with asthma are at greater risk, most people of my age (mid 40s) have co-morbidities and they can’t possible help everyone.

In my postcode at least.

I don’t think anyone who has been offered the jab should feel like a fraud.

The discussion over recent weeks on these asthma threads has been "Why aren't non-severe asthmatics in Group 6?".

Now it seems the urgent question needs to be "Why are ONLY SOME non-severe asthmatics in Group 6?"

As others have said, it's a complete lottery.

I'm really pleased for all those who have been lucky enough to be contacted. I just wish the rest of us could be prioritised too because it makes no sense and is causing a lot of anxiety!

@AcornAntiques exactly this. Exactly. There are no criteria, I asked my mp and she said it was a clinical decision. Which I take to mean that they’ve given no guidance to GP’s and it’ll depend on your GP either seeing themselves as a gatekeeper to prevent the undeserving accessing the jab or using street level bureaucracy to ignore the Tory’s and happily give it to everyone that they can stretch the criteria to include.

It does seem incredibly random who is being offered it and who isn't.

Some people without a preventer inhaler are being offered it whilst some people with multiple add on treatments aren't.

It just seems to be down to the patient's MP and how they have interpreted the eligibility criteria.

It also seems people with other conditions are affected by the uncertainty too:

amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/12/charities-urge-clarity-over-who-qualifies-for-next-uk-vaccine-wave?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true&s=08

Well I am 49, take the brown puffer and montelukast daily and teach in a school with a class of 35 where my only protection is a window. My GP says asthma is not on the list unless you have been hospitalised with it in the last year.

Great. So looking forward to being in a full class again on the 8th.

@phlebasconsidered I’m sorry. That’s terrible. Surely your GP, knowing your situation, could just tick the box for you. It’s at their discretion, after all.

Maybe just keep phoning up until you get one who will. If your surgery is anything like all the ones I’ve ever been registered to, you get a different answer depending on who you are talking to so you could be lucky with the next one.

@phlebasconsidered

Very similar to me, I'm equally unimpressed and hoping I might get lucky and called in for a vaccine still. I'm 39, a primary school teacher, worked from home last march/april, but been in school every work day since September now, dreading the full class returning asthma wise. I really hoped by the time that happened I would have been vaccinated either due to asthma or teaching. I go to work and home, occasional walls, haven't been in a shop since last February due to wanting to minimise risk as my asthma has always flared up due to viruses. This is the worst 12 months I've ever had asthma wise, I caught a virus of some sort last march, covid symptoms but reasonably mild, but before testing was available. Before that I had ventolin as needed and brown inhaler. Now I've been put on fostair and montelukast tablets as well as my ventolin and I'm still not always brilliantly controlled. Definitely not keen to be back in a room getting breathed on by 30 people every day again

@phlebasconsidered @Anawi me too. Hopefully we will get it soon (key workers are meant to get it after the over 50's) but it is a worrying time with March 8th approaching. Some of our children deliberately spit in adult's faces or start fights that we have to break up

Either GP's are seeing themselves as a gatekeeper as @Incrediblytired points out and some non severe asthmatics are being included at their discretion.

Or it's a case of poor data quality in patient records. Threads are popping up saying people under 50 have been invited even though they have no underlying health conditions. Some GP's may be going through with a fine tooth comb to ensure people are coded correctly, but I assume most are too busy.

It is so frustrating.

I've had a text for my appointment, I am over the moon - I don't think I realised how much it had been worrying me until I got that text today. For ref I'm late 40s on Sereflo and Ventolin.

I wonder if there is any difference in whether it's your GP doing the vaccinations or a grouping as to whether asthmatics are included? We're a large London Borough and there are three big vaccination centres so I suspect my GP is happily sending people off, whereas if they were doing them in the surgery I don't think I'd be getting in quite so fast.

Asthma UK have just tweeted the following:

"We have been urging the government for clarity on which priority group people with asthma will be in for the COVID vaccine and we have now been given further information.

If you were sent a shielding letter, you will be in group four. If you have ever had an emergency hospital admission for your asthma, or ever been prescribed three courses of steroid tablets in a three-month period you will fall into priority group six.

If you do not fall into either of these groups and are under the age of 50, you will be vaccinated after the first nine priority groups."

This is the same message that many GP's have been giving to non severe asthmatics. I just don't see how some people who don't fit the category are being invited.

Asthma U.K. have just updated:

If you were sent a shielding letter, you will be in group four. If you have ever had an emergency hospital admission for your asthma, or ever been prescribed three courses of steroid tablets in a three-month period you will fall into priority group six.

If you do not fall into either of these groups and are under the age of 50, you will be vaccinated after the first nine priority groups.

Doesn’t that still make group 4 the same as group 6? Why no acknowledgement that there is a vast difference between someone who occasionally need a ventolin inhaler and someone on two or three inhalers plus montelukast plus annual steroids when they get a virus?

@WrongKindOfFace I agree - this is what has seemed so unfair. There is hardly anything to distinguish between the two groups.

The cut-off point is so high that Group 4 and 6 only covers the minority. Asthma UK says severe asthma only describes 5% of asthma sufferers!

Many moderate asthmatics under 50 will therefore be unprotected for quite a while as we don't know yet who will be top of the list for Group 10.

The more frustrating thing is how some people are being invited despite not fitting the criteria. Good for them if they do though - I'm pleased for them!

Stupid, isn’t it.

The view on the asthma U.K. Facebook page seems to be that asthmatics have been sacrificed to allow the government to reach their vaccination targets.

Asthmatics are still on the government’s own clinically vulnerable list though.

I feel really down after seeing Asthma UK’s announcement, after a year being told we are at greater risk and to be especially careful, suddenly we aren’t vulnerable enough to be worth vaccinating. And I’m not even as bad an asthmatic as some of you who still won’t be eligible.

I suspect I will be right at the bottom of the pile now as I think they will go for occupations after group 9. Which I completely get, and want the teachers and police protected, but this just means members of those professions with asthma will have to wait longer as a result of this decision rather than being protected now.

Also when are GPs going to have time to go through every asthmatic’s medical records to determine if we have ever had a hospital admission or three courses of steroids in 3 months? Given it sounds like a lot of vaccination centres have plenty of spare capacity at the moment, wouldn’t it be more efficient just to invite all flu jab eligible asthmatics?