The preventer inhaler — taken when you feel well, which is exactly why it gets forgotten.
Explained by a GMC-registered GP, not a leaflet
Honest about what we can and cannot prescribe remotely
Side effects given the same weight as benefits
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Beclometasone is an inhaled corticosteroid — the "preventer" inhaler, usually brown. It reduces the ongoing inflammation in the airways that makes them twitchy and prone to narrowing.
It does nothing during an attack. It does not open the airways, and it will not help breathlessness in the moment — that is what the blue reliever does.
The difficulty with preventers is structural: they work by preventing symptoms, so the reward for taking one is that nothing happens. That is precisely why they get abandoned, and why abandoning them is dangerous.
Modern UK guidance has moved away from reliever-only asthma treatment, because using a blue inhaler alone is associated with worse outcomes, including deaths. Anyone with asthma should be on some form of inhaled steroid.
Studies consistently find that a large proportion of people use their inhaler incorrectly, and most of them believe they are using it correctly.
Several days to begin working and up to a few weeks for full effect. It is not a rescue treatment and never will be.
At standard doses these are unlikely, and the risks of untreated asthma are considerably greater.
Inhaled steroids should be continued in pregnancy. Uncontrolled asthma poses a far greater risk to a pregnancy than the inhaler does, and stopping treatment on becoming pregnant is a recognised and avoidable danger.
Everyone with asthma should have an annual review and a written personal action plan. If you have neither, that matters more than which inhaler you are on.
Yes, for continuing established asthma treatment where control is good and there is a clear existing diagnosis.
What we will not do is diagnose asthma remotely. That needs objective testing — spirometry with reversibility, FeNO, or peak flow monitoring — and treating breathlessness as asthma without it is how other diagnoses get missed.
Nor will we manage poorly controlled asthma at a distance. Needing your reliever three or more times a week, night waking, or getting through more than one reliever inhaler a month means the treatment plan needs changing with someone who can assess you properly and check your inhaler technique in person.
An acute asthma attack is an emergency and not something to assess by video.
Beclometasone inhalers are inexpensive generics. Different brands are not automatically interchangeable, because the dose delivered varies between them — which is why asthma inhalers are usually prescribed by brand.
Spacers cost very little and improve delivery considerably. They are worth having even if you feel your technique is good.
Inhalers containing propellant gases have a notable environmental footprint. Dry powder inhalers have a far smaller one and suit many people equally well — worth raising at review.
Feeling well on a preventer is the preventer working. Stopping allows the inflammation to return over days to weeks, often silently, until an attack.
Doses are stepped down gradually, on advice, once control has been good for several months — not stopped outright.
Where control is inadequate despite good technique and adherence, options include a higher dose, a combination inhaler with a long-acting bronchodilator, a MART regimen, or adding montelukast.
Check technique, adherence, smoking, hay fever and reflux first. Poor technique is the commonest reason a preventer appears to have stopped working, and no dose increase compensates for a drug that is not reaching the lungs.
Because that is the point. It treats the underlying inflammation that would otherwise build up unnoticed and produce an attack.
At standard doses, no. The dose reaching the bloodstream is tiny compared with steroid tablets. Poorly controlled asthma carries far more risk than the inhaler does, and fear of steroids is a significant cause of undertreated asthma.
Ideally not at all, and no more than twice a week. More than that means asthma is not controlled and the plan needs changing.
Yes, if you use a metered-dose inhaler. It substantially increases delivery to the lungs and reduces thrush. It is cheap and it is not just for children.
Yes, and you should continue it. Uncontrolled asthma is the greater risk by a wide margin.
Rinse and spit after every dose, and use a spacer. That resolves it for most people.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, GMC 7563469
Last reviewed
August 30, 2026
On this page
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£40 for 20 minutes
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Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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