Senior medical staff need to be included in severe asthma

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7397.1039

BMJ 2003;326:1039 ( 10 May )

Letters

Senior medical staff need to be included in severe asthma

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Rees has drawn attention to the importance and usefulness of the new asthma guidelines, but he questioned the necessityof adding the authors' view that senior medical staff should beconsulted in a situation where there is clear evidence of benefit(use of intravenous magnesium for severe asthma).¹

As a member of the group developing guidelines for the management of acute asthma for the British Thoracic Society-ScottishIntercollegiate Network, I would like to clarify the reason forincluding this advice in the guidelines. A weakness of the previousguidelines from the British Thoracic Society was the absence ofclear advice concerning the involvement of senior staff in thecare of patients at high risk. It was common for junior staffto manage severely ill patients and to administer treatments suchas aminophylline, which could cause serious side effects withoutdiscussing the patient with seniorstaff.

Intravenous magnesium has . . . [Full text of this article]