A recently launched programme of care supporting people with respiratory health conditions in Calderdale is already proving to be beneficial for patients.

The Integrated Respiratory Service, which was launched by CCG and CHFT on 1 September, is reducing the number of hospital admissions caused by respiratory illnesses, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), by offering patients direct access to a Specialist Respiratory Community Service (SRCS).

This team provides specialist care and support to help patients manage their conditions and can arrange appointments with patients at home, at locations across Calderdale’s upper valley, lower valley or in central Halifax, or at CRH.

Mrs Ann Varley, a patient who has benefitted from the service said: “The support I’ve been given since leaving Calderdale Royal Hospital has been second-to-none.

“I’ve been assigned a COPD nurse, who gives me confidence and her help is just at the end of the telephone should I have any worries, and if she is not there it is reassuring that someone else is. I have found it to be a first-class service.”

Those in need of urgent care can be referred for rapid assessment at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, where they are treated as outpatients by a team of expert respiratory consultants, who also review people admitted to hospital with complex respiratory issues to facilitate early supported discharge.

The service is accessed via a dedicated phone line, which is manned by a respiratory specialist seven days-a-week between 9.00am and 5.00pm. Patients are assessed over the phone by a dedicated respiratory specialist, and are then seen by a member of the SCRS, or given an appointment to see a respiratory Consultant.

Dr Annika Graham, one of three respiratory consultants supporting the Integrated Respiratory Service based at CRH, said of the programme: “the new service is designed to provide prompt access to a respiratory specialist for patients with respiratory symptoms that are unstable or deteriorating rapidly.

“This group of patients frequently end up being admitted to hospital or deteriorating before they reach specialist assessment and it is hoped this can be avoided. Early specialist assessment should provide the most appropriate diagnostic tests and treatment in a more timely fashion.”