The Sentinel Project

What the scheme has achieved so far...

Short acting beta agonist inhalers (aka 'blue inhalers') are often used to relieve symptoms in asthma. Frequent blue inhaler use can reflect poor asthma control and risk of asthma attacks. The Sentinel Project aims to reduce the number of blue inhalers needed by asthma patients by improving people's asthma control. Blue metered dose inhalers also have a greater impact on the environment than other inhaler types. Improving peoples' asthma control using guideline recommended treatments can also be good for the environment.

This project was initiated in a stepwise fashion across the primary care networks (PCNs) within Hull and East Yorkshire. These figures represent data to November 2022 in 6 primary care networks, where initiation started in November 2020 for PCN 1, February 2021 for PCN 2, June 2021 for PCN 3 and September 2021 for PCN 4, October 2021 for PCN 5, and December 2021 for PCN 6. These figures are based on the PCN footprints in 2021. Data extracted from open prescribing.

How have these figures been calculated?
Comparison with the same period in the previous year and includes a summation of year one SABA reduction from baseline and year two SABA reductions from the same initial baseline. The figure hence assumes that without the SENTINEL intervention prescribing of SABA inhalers would have remained unchanged from baseline in year one and year two. Figures also displays SABA inhaler use across ALL respiratory patients and are not adjusted for changes in patient numbers during the assessment period. Calculations assume that 100% of SABA inhalers prescribed were pMDIs. The average carbon footprint of SABA pMDI is 28kg eCO₂.