About
The Asthma Program at BC Children's Hospital consists of two clinics:
- the Asthma Clinic and the
- the Severe Asthma Clinic
Please note that there is no longer an Asthma Education Clinic at BC Children's as our asthma educators are now working in conjunction with our nurse practitioners and physicians in the Asthma Centre.
To find your closest education clinic please check the BC Lung Association website.
The Asthma Clinic is a collaborative clinic involving nurse practitioners, pediatricians and asthma educators and it helps to diagnose asthma and manage uncontrolled asthma symptoms.
This clinic does not have the capacity to see all children with asthma. The referral criteria are:
- Poor asthma control or persistent exacerbations despite regular daily moderate inhaled corticosteroids or
- Children with an unclear asthma diagnosis despite guideline-based workup
Children who do not meet these criteria can be referred to a pediatrician or a local Asthma Clinic for asthma education, pulmonary function testing and assessment.
The average number of visits with the Asthma Clinic is 3-4 visits after which time most patients will be discharged back to the care of your regular doctor to continue managing your asthma. It can take more than one visit to establish a diagnosis, in particular if your asthma is seasonal or intermittent. Once a diagnosis is established, the goal is to not have any asthma symptoms or asthma attacks. To achieve this goal you will be given an asthma action plan, asthma education, the correct medication device and asthma medications.
The Severe Asthma Clinic is for children who have uncontrolled asthma despite being on moderate to high doses of multiple asthma medications. Children are seen in this clinic after being assessed in the Asthma Clinic and are managed by a pediatric respirologist and allergist. The Severe Asthma Clinic provides long term management for patients with difficult to control asthma.
- We require at least 72 hours notice for rescheduling and will only reschedule once before a new referral is required
Please call 604-875-3042 or email asthma@cw.bc.ca the clinic to notify us of a cancellation.