Asthma affects approximately 1 in 10 children in the UK.1 The British Thoracic Soceity/Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network algorithms2 are widely used; however, personal experience suggested that their recommendations for patient education were not being used. We undertook a postal questionnaire to determine whether the guidelines were being implemented as recommended.

The questionnaire was sent to 150 randomly selected NHS hospitals in England, Scotland and Wales. Of 54 replies, six were excluded because the hospitals did not have in-patient paediatric facilities, …