Parents of children with asthma shun doctors: research

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

Researchers are targeting school pupils and their parents to find out why many children with asthma bypass family doctors and go straight to hospital.

Doctors and asthma groups say that many patients have poor control of their wheezing, coughing and breathlessness because community-based healthcare is too costly or restricted.

One in six New Zealanders has the disease and in up to 60 per cent of sufferers it is poorly controlled.

Asthma is the most common cause of children's hospital admissions in New Zealand.

"Some children with asthma aren't getting care from a family doctor. They turn up at hospital, often at night," said Dr Stephen Buetow, who is leading the Auckland Medical School study.

He said yesterday that preliminary findings of the three-year research project had confirmed that the cost of GP visits was a big turnoff for many parents of children with asthma.

"But people have said to me that the cost of redeeming prescriptions is perhaps more of a barrier."

The Government pays for GP visits and drug prescriptions for children younger than 6.

For older children, prescriptions cost $10, and GP visits often cost $25 after the $15 Government subsidy (the costs are less for families with a community services card).

Dr Buetow's team has interviewed 16 mothers of children taken to the emergency departments of the Starship or Kidz First hospitals. Members have also quizzed 29 doctors, nurses and consumer representatives.

He said some mothers avoided primary healthcare for their children because of concerns about the youngsters being prescribed preventive steroid therapy. They wanted treatment for attacks.

In the study's next stage, parents of asthmatics aged 6 to 9 at about 25 primary schools will be asked to answer a questionnaire about their use of GPs.

Asthmatic students aged 13 and 14 at up to 14 high schools, and their parents, will also be asked to participate.

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, Asthma New Zealand, lung doctors and drug companies say many patients have been left with poorly controlled asthma because of Government policies.

They say the thresholds set by Government drug-buyer, Pharmac, for subsidised access to long-acting drugs that dilate constricted breathing tubes should be eased.

The executive director of Asthma New Zealand, Gerry Hanna, said it was joining forces with the foundation and groups representing doctors and nurses to create a new body with more clout: the New Zealand Asthma Council.

"One organisation would be a much more powerful voice."

His group and the foundation want the Government to give asthma a higher priority in health strategies, perhaps paying for regular check-ups for asthma patients.

But Health Minister Annette King said: "Pharmac does fund a wide range of asthma drugs. Any day of the week we're asked to fund new drugs or a wider range of drugs for some disorder."

She said the Government's $410 million package of new spending in primary healthcare over the next three years should lead to better treatment of asthma patients in the community.

nzherald.co.nz/health