Helping the region to breath
Thursday, 08 December, 2011
About three million people in the UK live with respiratory disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, but of those fewer than
900,000 have been diagnosed and are being treated.
The East of England Ambulance Service supported World COPD Day on November 16, set up by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), which works with health care professionals to raise awareness of COPD and other breathing matters.
This summer, 12 members of front-line staff stepped forward to become COPD champions and help spread the message about COPD care, with additional focus on helping patients avoid going into hospital. Introducing champions was also in line with the Skills for Health's respiratory disease competence framework published in March, which describes the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to deliver patient-centred respiratory care.
The Suffolk COPD Admission Avoidance Pathway, which won an award last year, has
received interest from primary care trusts and ambulance services around the country. The replicable scheme is successful as it is able to complement the work of specialist, community-based services and the rapid response made to COPD patients who dial 999.
Upon assessment by ambulance clinicians, suitable patients can be referred to these services where they can receive the specialist care in their own home and prevent admission to hospital. One of the Trust's clinical general managers Matt Broad has met with health services in Essex to showcase the COPD admission avoidance pathway and said they "are very keen to introduce a similar pathway".
He added: "I am working with them to review the community services and see how we can adapt the pathway to complement these services. This has been achieved in the mid-Essex area where ambulance crews can now refer COPD patients into the local COPD community team. Southend Hospital has also been reviewing the Suffolk scheme and has run an audit of COPD patients who would be suitable for admission avoidance."
The Trust was also invited to discuss the award-winning admission avoidance scheme at the British Thoracic Society's winter conference in November.
