In this issue February 2002

The 3+ Visit Plan

Asthma is one of the ten most common reasons for visiting a GP in Australia. But there are still people with asthma who are undiagnosed, and people who are diagnosed who suffer unnecessary disruption to their lives because their asthma is poorly controlled.

The 3+ Visit Plan is the GP intervention developed and promoted by the National Asthma Council's General Practitioners' Asthma Group. The 3+ Visit Plan rearranges the Australian Six Step Asthma Management Plan to allow the GP to work with the patient by conducting at least 3 asthma-specific consultations over a period of four weeks to four months. Care planning will also involve GPs working with other health professionals in the management of people with asthma.

Funding in the 2001 Federal Budget has been allocated over four years for the national implementation of the 3+Visit Plan by GPs. Patients with moderate to severe asthma are eligible.

An article by the Chairman of the National Asthma Council Dr Ron Tomlins, explains the 3+Visit Plan and first appeared in the monthly RACGP newspaper, GP Review.

For more information on the 3+Visit Plan

View Dr Ron Tomlin's article in PDF format

Australian Deaths from Asthma

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released figures on 11 December 2001 showing that the annual asthma death toll has risen slightly with 454 deaths recorded last year. Although the increase is marginal - 30 more than the previous year - this is the first increase recorded since the ABS adopted new World Health Organisation coding rules for asthma deaths a few years ago.

New initiatives such as the federal government's rollout of the National Asthma Council's 3+ Visit Plan and people with moderate or severe asthma will be an important strategy in addressing the death rate.

View media release on deaths from asthma

Summer Feature - First Aid for Asthma

Going away on holiday may bring an unwelcome reaction for a person with asthma. Unfamiliar surroundings may include asthma triggers not usually present in the home or work environment and an asthma attack may result.

So, along with your holiday gear, pack a copy of the Asthma First Aid Chart.

Journalism Awards

The Journalism Awards were first conducted in 1999 and were recently relaunched at the Australian Medical Writers' Association conference. The awards aim to promote and encourage responsible reporting of issues relating to asthma treatment, management and education. The awards are open to journalists in Australia.

NAC Web Site Survey

The National Asthma Council receives many visitors every week from people interested in asthma management including people with asthma and carers, GPs, nurses, pharmacists, asthma educators and other health professionals.

Periodically the NAC conducts an on-line survey of our site visitors designed to help us learn more about what is relevant to our visitors' needs. The information we collect is general in nature only such as age, occupation and frequency of visit to the site. Additionally we seek opinion about the ease of navigation, as well as how information is presented and found.

Most questions are multiple choice or a choice from several options and take only a few minutes to complete. The NAC would appreciate your support in completing the survey.