Primary Care Pharmacy in the Real World: Respiratory Disease, Frailty & Palliative Care

Our study days are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, who provide funding that allows us to offer all events completely free of charge. Sponsors have no involvement in agenda development, speaker selection, or clinical content – this is managed entirely by MORPh’s clinical team.

The “Primary Care Pharmacy in the Real World: Respiratory Disease, Frailty & Palliative Care”  Study Day is free to access for all registered healthcare professionals that have a MORPh Account.

Doors will open at 09:00 for welcome and introductions the study day will begin shortly after. Our expert speakers will be discussing the following topics:

Learning Outcomes 

By the end of this training, participants will be able to: 

• Confidently address common respiratory challenges in practice, including SABA overuse, poor adherence, and inhaler technique issues 
• Apply case-based clinical reasoning to make informed decisions around inhaler choice, escalation, and rescue packs 
• Identify and assess frailty using recognised tools (CFS, eFI, EFS) and understand its impact on prescribing decisions 
• Conduct high-quality, frailty-focused Structured Medication Reviews, incorporating deprescribing and risk–benefit discussions 
• Optimise medicines for patients with palliative care needs, focusing on symptom control and quality of life 
• Navigate difficult conversations around treatment limits, deprescribing, and advance care planning using shared decision-making principles 
• Work effectively within the multidisciplinary team (MDT) to deliver holistic, patient-centred care 

Asthma & COPD in Primary Care: Clinical Updates – CPD Accredited

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 

• Apply validated tools and clinical criteria to identify poorly controlled asthma and high-risk patients, including recognition of SABA overuse patterns  
• Demonstrate a structured approach to consulting with a patient with poorly controlled asthma and SABA overuse, including behaviour change concepts and co-producing a personalised asthma action plan 
• Summarise key updates from GOLD guidelines and identify the pharmacological and non-pharmacological management priorities in primary care 
• Apply a step-wise optimisation approach to a COPD patient’s plan to help reduce exacerbations and admission risk 
• Assess a rescue pack request in COPD, deliver person-centred counselling on exacerbation recognition, treatment, safety netting and when to escalate 

Case-Based Workshop: Applying Respiratory Management in Practice

• Small-group discussion of real-world asthma and COPD cases 
• Choosing, optimising, and switching inhalers 
• Decision-making around rescue packs and follow-up 
• Handling challenging consultations (e.g. SABA dependence, low engagement) 
• Group feedback and key practical take-home points 

Frailty & Structured Medication Reviews: Practical Prescribing for Complex Patients

Focus: Delivering high-quality, meaningful SMRs in frail patients 

• Understanding frailty: definition, prevalence, and why it matters 
• Frailty scoring systems in practice: 
  • Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) 
  • Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) 
  • Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) 

• Impact of frailty on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics 
• Conducting a high-quality frailty-focused SMR: 
  • Identifying appropriate patients 
  • Applying STOPP/START and NO TEARS 
  • Balancing risk vs benefit 
  • Reducing treatment burden and polypharmacy 
• Practical documentation and demonstrating clinical impact 

Palliative Care in Primary Care: Managing Medicines & Difficult Conversations

Focus: Holistic, compassionate care towards the later stages of life 

• Recognising when patients may be entering a palliative phase 
• Principles of palliative care in primary care 
• Symptom management and medication optimisation 
• Having difficult conversations: 
  • Discussing prognosis and treatment limits 
  • Shared decision-making and advance care planning 
  • Managing uncertainty and patient/family expectations 

• Ethical considerations around limiting or withdrawing treatment 
• Working collaboratively with the MDT, carers, and community teams