COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)

What is this service?

Our respiratory specialist community Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) team provide a variety of specialist skills through the following services:

• Admission Avoidance – a hospital at home service to help prevent patients having to attend hospital
• Early Supported Discharge – helping to facilitate patients hospital discharge to reduce their length of stay in hospital (<48hours)
• Pulmonary Rehabilitation – a community run treatment programme for people with long term lung conditions whose breathing is causing them difficulty moving around or carrying out daily activities.

COPD patients may be referred into our Telehealth monitoring service, to find out more about Telehealth please click here.

What does this service do?

Admission Avoidance and Early Supported Discharge

Through these services we bring care into the community and provide a safe alternative to staying in hospital. We visit patients in their own home during the length of their COPD exacerbation (flare-up). During exacerbations we can increase social support with our Rapid Response Team which consists of nursing and therapies staff.

We advocate a self-management approach to help patients better understand their care. Through this ethos we encourage patients to take control in managing their condition.

Our Admission Avoidance and Early Supported Discharge services can provide a variety of care and treatment within patients homes including:

• providing a short term nebuliser
• providing an oxygen therapy needs assessment
• teaching chest clearance techniques
• supporting patients in disease education
• assessment of inhaler techniques
• support with smoking cessation
• assistance with long term conditions management

We work closely with a variety of other healthcare services such as GPs, Respiratory Consultants and HOT clinics.

We can also make referrals to our Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Community Matron and Occupational Therapy services as well as the Bristol Stop Smoking Team.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Our Pulmonary Rehabilitation group programme combines a personalised activity programme with education and advice to help people with lung conditions feel more in control of their breathlessness and their condition. The programme is run in community venues across Bristol and patients can choose where they would like to attend. Transport can be provided where necessary.

Patients attend for 6 weeks, twice weekly, for two hours. Patients can choose where they would like to attend pulmonary rehabilitation and, if applicable, transport can be provided.

Before the programme starts patients will have an appointment to see one of our specialist physiotherapists or nurses to complete a respiratory assessment and set individual goals.

Each pulmonary rehabilitation session consists of an hour of education including topics such as managing breathlessness and daily activities, common lung medications and healthy diet. This is then followed by a physical activity session which will be set to match patients' individual capabilities. The exercises aim to improve stamina and strength and help patients gain control of breathlessness during activity.

After completing our pulmonary rehabilitation programme many patients report that they can walk further, feel fitter, are better able to cope with their condition and therefore have an improved quality of life.

We work with Bristol City Council to develop supportive physical activity programmes for patients to attend after this programme ends.

Who is this service for?

Admission Avoidance and Early Supported Discharge

This service is available to people who:

• live in South or Inner City and East Bristol
• have a confirmed diagnosis of COPD
• have an exacerbation of their COPD that is at risk of hospital admission
• patients who have been admitted to hospital and have been in hospital for less than 48 hours

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

This service is available to people who:

• are over 18 years old
• have a long term lung condition that affects their ability to do daily tasks. This includes COPD, Bronchiectasis and Chronic Asthma.

The age of the patient and the severity of their condition should not affect a patient’s ability to benefit from the programme as it is individually tailored to the person’s needs and goals.

Emergency referrals can also be made for patients who have recently attended, or been admitted to, hospital with a flare up of their lung condition.

How can I access this service?

Admission Avoidance

Access to this service is by referral only. Referrals must be made by the GP or Community Matron who will have reviewed the patient on the same day. Patients must have been seen by the clinician who is taking medical responsibility for them. The clinician must approve the patient as safe to be managed at home with the support of our community respiratory team.

  To refer into Admission Avoidance please contact our Single Point of Access (SPA) on: 0117 903 0202.

Early Supported Discharge

Access to this service is by referral only. Referrals can be made by any clinical member of staff from the United Bristol Healthcare Trust (UBHT) for patients who are safe to be discharged within 48 hours.

• To refer into Early Supported Discharge call: 0117 342 3895 

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Any health care professional can refer to the service using the referral form - to access this download the 'COPD Referral Pathway from the 'Download Documents' section on the left side of this page.

Patients who have a diagnosis of a long term lung condition can self refer by contacting the Community Respiratory Team on the number below. Patients who self refer must be happy for our team to speak to their GP to gain their full medical history prior to attendance at the group.

How to contact us

Patients who have been referred into any of our COPD services can contact our team during the hours of service using the number below.

Admission Avoidance and Early Supported Discharge Hours of Service

These are seven day services which are open as follows:
Monday – Friday: 8am-8pm
Saturday, Sunday and Bank holidays: 9am-5pm

Pulmonary Rehabilitation Hours of Service

Our programmes run on varying days and times between Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, at locations across Bristol.

 Community Respiratory Team
Amelia Nutt Clinic
Withywood Centre
Queens Road
Withywood
BS13 8QA

 0117 987 8335 / 0117 987 8336