Asthma UK argues that rules which prevent schools from keeping a spare inhaler for asthmatic children who forget, lose or run out of their medication, means that children face an increased health risk if they suffer from an asthma attack while at school.
A survey of more than 200 children with asthma by the charity found that nearly two-thirds have had an asthma attack at school. It also revealed that 64 per cent of the children have at some point been unable to access a working inhaler while at school, having either forgotten, lost, broken or run out of their own.
Under regulations set by the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency schools cannot keep spare reliever inhalers (Salbutamol) because they are a prescription-only medicine to be administered to the individual who was prescribed it.
To allow schools to keep inhalers in their first aid kits, the charity is calling on the MHRA to change the rules and make an exemption to the regulations.
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