Action points:

Professor Andrew Bush and Dr Louise Fleming of Imperial College and Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust say that in the past asthma was undoubtedly underdiagnosed, but the evidence now is that the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has published a new report, ‘The Stolen Years’, which is endorsed by 27 health and mental health organisations and sets out recommendations for how smoking rates for people with a mental health condition

This is a new opportunity for 2016-17 and is now open for applications. 

It argues that smokers can be reassured and encouraged to use them, and the public can be reassured that e-cigarettes are much safer than smoking.

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The article is based on  a research study conducted in the Netherlands and refers back to 

Key facts:

Key findings

We think that testing out the proposals in real world settings will be really useful in order to explore issues around feasibility, training, workload, time required and cost.

The new guideline focuses on prevention and education. It recommends:

The National Insititute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new Pneumonia Quality Standard.   It contains two quality statements relevant to primary care:

Special Features Editor’s Round-Up Hilary Pinnock Chair's perspective: A new direction for PCRS-UK Stephen Gaduzo Inspiring, thought provoking and challenging: the PCRS-UK 2015 national conference Francesca Robinson