Please notify the NRAD team at the Royal College of Physicians of any deaths from asthma occurring between 1February 2012 and 31January 2013 as soon as possible after death.
The NRAD will collect details of asthma deaths from primary and secondary care to identify what can be done to improve care and reduce deaths from asthma in future.
Further information on how the inclusion criteria and how to notify the NRAD team can be found at: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/nrad
Alternatively please notify the team by email or phone
Email: rachael.davey@nhs.net or rosie.houston@nhs.net
A National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD), run by a consortium of asthma professional and patient bodies, led by the Royal College of Physicians, will look into the circumstances surrounding deaths from asthma. The British Thoracic Society is a consortium partner. The NRAD has been commissioned and funded by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and is taking place across the UK. Data collection for the Review will start on 1 February 2012 for 12 months.
The primary aim of the NRAD is to understand the circumstances surrounding current asthma deaths in order to identify avoidable factors and make recommendations for implementing changes to improve care and to reduce the number of deaths from asthma in the future.
From 1st February 2012, for a 12 month period, every death from asthma in the UK will be reviewed systematically and will be subject to an in-depth multidisciplinary confidential enquiry. By engaging with health professionals and family members the project will seek to gain a far more detailed picture by exploring the medical care received, the environmental conditions prevailing at the time of death, and the involvement of workplace and school. The NRAD will build on previous confidential enquiries into asthma deaths in regions of the UK and to provide a more robust body of evidence on which to build our understanding of how life-threatening situations arise and how they can be avoided in future.
Call for lead coordinators
To achieve the maximum benefit from this project it is essential that data is submitted from both primary and secondary care services. The NRAD team are seeking nominations for a lead coordinator within each organisation to be the principal contact for the project and to encourage engagement from the wider clinical community.
Further information is available here:
NRAD Summary
Local Coordinator information
Contact details form
To nominate a lead coordinator, or for further information please contact Rosie Houston, NRAD Programme Manager, at rosie.houston@rcplondon.ac.uk or 0207 467 3232.
Call for panel assessors
We are looking to recruit professionals to be panel assessors for the National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD), being run by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). Panel assessors must currently be in clinical practice or have retired within the previous five years. We are looking for:
• consultant respiratory physicians
• consultant paediatricians (preferably with a special interest in respiratory medicine)
• consultants in emergency medicine or consultants in paediatric emergency medicine
• consultants in intensive care
• consultants in paediatric intensive care
• general practitioners (preferably with a special interest in respiratory medicine)
• respiratory nurse specialists (primary, acute or secondary care)
• respiratory nurse specialists with paediatric expertise (primary, acute or secondary care)
• pathologists
Every death from asthma in the UK over a 12 month period from the 1 February 2012 will be systematically assessed and will be subject to an in-depth multidisciplinary confidential enquiry. The overriding aim of the confidential enquiry phase of the NRAD is to identify preventable or avoidable factors from individual cases in order to learn lessons for future implementation by healthcare professionals and people who suffer from asthma, in order to prevent deaths in the future. Assessment of cases will be based on a review of case notes against recognised standards of care from national guidelines and a set of quality indicators derived from clinical experts.
For further information on the project, the role of panel assessors and how you can apply please see our website – www.rcplondon.ac.uk/nrad
Alternatively please email nrad@rcplondon.ac.uk or phone +44 (0) 20 3075 1500
13 September 2011