I have been prescribed the new powder inhalers (without my consent) as they're better for the environment. But they don't help at all. When I can't breath they give me no relief and I have had to go to emergency before because of this.
My asthma nurse refused to change me back to the aerosol one and I'm not sure what to do anymore. I'm scared I'll never have that inhaler again and I'll never be able to help myself when I can breathe.
The propellent actually helped a lot when I couldn't breathe, I struggle to suck the medication out of the new ones when I can't breathe.
Does anyone else struggle with these inhalers? Surely they can't just change them permanently if people are struggling and surely they can change it without our consent?
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I would speak to a GP and avoid that asthma nurse. I just changed from a powder to a pressurised one for the same reason and I mentioned the environmental impact and my reluctance to do it. The asthma nurse just said, if you need it to get control, that's more important.
And interestingly, when I was chatting with my GP a couple of weeks later, he just said, your health comes first.
What's great is that pharmaceutical companies are doing clinical trials of almost zero carbon pressurised inhalers. And some for COPD have just successfully got through them. I wonder if they are realising that powdered inhalers probably don't work as effectively as pressurised ones.
I can’t use powder inhalers. My airways are very sensitive to any irritatant so the powder makes me wheeze and cough, no matter how fine it is. Maybe this is what’s happening to you? Not all asthmatics can use them, she should know that. I agree with Poobah you should see your gp. The asthma nurse at my surgery is useless, I never see her.
I had the same problem. I agree those powder inhalers are not good when you can’t breathe. I refused to use one. I saw my GP who immediately gave me my aerosol one back. Please speak to your GP as soon as possible and insist on the aerosol inhaler.
Hi I've been reading everyone's responses and I would suggest you by pass the asthma nurse, I'd even be tempted to make a complaint and report her as she has no concern for your health as she's ignoring how dangerous it has been for you and with her attitude she has no concern for your health or anyone's else !!!I would also stick to your guns about sticking to your guns until your back on your old inhaler and have your asthma back under control.
hi, like the other replies you have had, I have had the same experience I didn’t like the powder ones, as my nurse said to me try this one it is supposed to be better, but no it wasn’t. I wasted three powder inhalers and I got rewarded with being issued with my old type inhaler with spacer, I also said I didn’t like the new preventive inhaler as it doesn’t do anything for me. With the powder ones I never knew how much medicine I got from them as invariably I choked or coughed and lost a lot.
I know there seems to be quite a big difference in price and I do appreciate the expense and the state our NHS is in, but I would have been back in hospital with an exacerbation before long. Where is the cost saving? No point in doctors & nurses prescribing inhalers which they know don’t help as well. None of us want to go back into hospital to get ‘fixed’!!
Another suggestion would be to make the ‘new’ inhalers with a weeks supply and not 30days.
I must be an odd one out, for me the gas made my asthma worse, and I think because more effort is needed with the dry powder it actually strengthens your lung muscles, but then I've never had bother getting air in even during a bad exacerbation 🤷🏻♂️
Hi everyone just like to add I’m already on power inhalers Relvar Elliptar and Incruse and was not happy with how my Salamol helped me when I was struggling to breathe. After help from friends on here I asked for the dry powder Ventolin Accuhaler, much better. Everyone is different but obviously some can manage well with the dry powder alternative.
It is very important to report if your inhaler is not working, as this could be serious in the case of asthma. Sometimes, it seems, medical professionals need to be reminded that they are supposed to be treating people, not the environment!
At the end of the day, clinical decisions trump a non clinical initiative, like chasing a small percentage reduction in CO2 levels. As everyone has said, see your GP and prep yourself with what you want to say, so that you don't get off track or get talked out of your reasonable request for the reinstatement of proven treatment. I've taken dry powder inhalers for decades, but just because they suit me doesn't mean they'll suit you or anyone else. Good luck and keep us posted.
PS. If the NHS wants to reduce their carbon footprint, they could start by turning down the heat in their hospitals. Sorry, a little pet peeve of mine. 🙄
A few months back there was a post about our rights concerning changed medication. I wish I’d saved it. The member said gps are not supposed to swap you to a different one without discussing with you first. They must always act in your best interests and swap you back if you request it. I found a link to a helpful leaflet, which must surely apply to all surgeries oversurgery.nhs.uk/wp-conte...
Hello, oh this makes me so angry that asthma patients are suffering because of a silly Net Zero ruling. Most of the aerosol inhalers are CFC free anyway. I am the other way round, I was prescribed powder inhalers for years but recently my asthma became uncontrolled and I realised that when I had used my daughter’s aerosol inhaler in emergencies, I was much better! I was struggling to inhale the powder inhaler properly. So at my review when my nurse pointed out my asthma was uncontrolled I mentioned this. Miraculously, she agreed to trial me on a new aerosol preventer inhaler and a Salumol blue inhaler. She would not give me Ventolin though, which my daughter has but I seem to be doing ‘ok’ with the Salumol - it has less propellant in it than Ventolin. Please insist that you bypass this nurse who obviously cares more about Net Zero than her patient’s health. Why should asthma sufferers possibly die on the hill of Net Zero? Not acceptable.
As others have said, your asthma control and health should come first. I agree to try and see someone else and perhaps to ask that they have a word with the nurse to clear up how this works. The nurse is putting people in danger not listening to them when they say their preventer doesn't work.
Apart from the danger to your health which should be the most important consideration, I think I've read that the salbutamol aerosols contribute the most CO2. If your preventer isn't working for you, you'll need more reliever, so I can't see that insisting you use a dry powder inhaler that doesn't work for you is helpful even in just environmental terms in any case. And if you got really bad you'd almost certainly end up with more carbon emissions from that eg a road trip to the GP or hospital.
Again, not that these concerns should be put ahead of your health - they should be helping you with your asthma for your own sake, not balancing carbon emissions first.
Accuhalers (disc dry powder inhalers) are much harder to use to relieve a full blown asthma attack as they require a more forceful breath in. For that reason I always have one ventolin evohaler (an aerosol) as well as ventolin accuhalers. Most of the time I will go with the accuhalers and rely on long experience of my asthma (60 years now) to know when it’s a good idea to use one before things get to the state where using one becomes difficult. But there have been times when things have got too bad to do that (severe viral infection/chest infection etc) and only the evohaler will do. I actually like the accuhalers, simply because they have counting devices on them so it’s possible to see how much is left. Sadly, that is not the case with the evohaler.
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