We asthmatics know our issue ideal. So trust us with Ventolin, GPs and chemists | Giles Fraser

‘Generally speaking, people with asthma know how properly their lungs are functioning. We don’t go to the physician for exciting.’ Photograph: Corbis

I have had asthma considering that I was a kid. People long sleepless nights, as well frightened to lie down, breathing as if via cotton wool. In fact, it is the breathing out that is frequently more challenging it’s like pushing against some hidden force that will not allow you expel the air from your lungs. And the wonder of Ventolin is that, most of the time, it can open up your lungs in a few moments.

Oh how I need to have that magical blue puffer. I can’t leave the residence with out it. And when I run out or get rid of it (and, being disorganised, this occurs quite a great deal), I panic. Beg, borrow or steal: I require a single with me at all instances.

But it really is quicker and less complicated to get recreational pharmaceuticals in my element of south London. It normally requires over a week to get a doctor’s appointment and often 3 days to procedure a repeat prescription. You can go into a pharmacy and inquire for an emergency supply but there is absolutely no consistency in whether a pharmacist will permit you to have one. Some do so straight away, other folks give you the third degree and hold you waiting for an hour or so, some just refuse. I now have a pretty comprehensive mental directory of the useful pharmacists and the unhelpful pharmacists in central London. In a quantity of European countries you can buy them in excess of the counter. I generally stock up if I go to France.

Five and a half million men and women in this country have asthma and 1,242 people died of asthma attacks in 2012. Worryingly, a report just published on asthma deaths in the United kingdom concludes that there is a large degree of complacency between health care pros about its treatment.

This corresponds to my very own long, albeit personal, encounter of dealing with medical professionals treating my asthma. The issue is that GPs often will not pay attention effectively to the insight that asthmatics have into their own situation. It is profoundly irritating to sooner or later get an appointment when a single is gasping for air only to be provided a fundamental and patronising tutorial in how to use Ventolin. Normally speaking, folks with asthma know how properly their lungs are functioning. I can normally guess with surprising accuracy what my expiration charge (peak movement reading) is at any provided second. We don’t go to the doctor for fun. They want to pay attention to their sufferers much more.

Yes, we asthmatics can be our very own worst enemies. Numerous of us will not use our preventative inhalers as considerably as we ought. And some of us are foolish adequate to smoke also. But none of this will take away from how hard it frequently is to get the medicines we require.

Personally, I believe Ventolin ought to be offered in excess of the counter in this nation. It is not as if there are people queuing up to use Ventolin at raves. Nor have I ever heard of anybody who has harmed themselves by taking too considerably of their puffer – yes, if you overdose you can get a bit shakey. But you can overdose on water.

Is not it time we started out trusting asthmatics a bit much more in the treatment method of their very own condition?

We asthmatics know our issue ideal. So trust us with Ventolin, GPs and chemists | Giles Fraser