Oxygen Administration

What is this service?

Administration of referrals to the home oxygen service, for patients who require long term oxygen therapy (LTOT).

What does this service do?

We manage the referral process for the prescription of oxygen therapy, to ensure that home oxygen is appropriately prescribed to the people who clinically need it. This is done by:

• Screening referrals
• Retrieving all relevant clinical information
• Making onward referrals to the relevant clinical assessment centre (currently provided by University Hospitals Bristol and the North Bristol Trust)

The acute oxygen service will contact the patient to make an appointment. Clinics are offered at Southmead Hospital, provided by the North Bristol Trust; and at Bristol Royal Infirmary and o Bristol Community Hospital, provided by University Hospitals Bristol.

At this appointment an assessment will be completed. This may include:

• Clinical examination
• Monitoring oxygen levels using a finger probe (saturations)
• Taking of blood from the wrist (called an arterial blood gas)
• Assessing the effectiveness of oxygen therapy in the clinic
• Self-care support:
• supporting patients to understand their lung condition
• assessment of inhaler techniques
• support with smoking cessation
• benefits advice
• Sign-posting to other services e.g. Pulmonary Rehabilitation

The nurses and therapists will then discuss the requirement for oxygen therapy and how this can be managed at home with the patient to develop an individualised plan. Oxygen is then ordered using the supplier Air Liquide, who will organise to deliver the therapy and go through using it at home

Who is the service for?

This service is available for people who meet the following criteria:

• People who live in Bristol area
• Patients who are over 18 years old
• Patients with respiratory disease which is stable (no exacerbations for >5 weeks)
• Patients who have had their medication regime optimised
• Patients with chronically low oxygen levels in their blood (resting saturations of <92% on air)
• May be considered in patients with COPD and very severe airflow obstruction (FEV1 <30% predicted)
• For a full summary of inclusion criteria please click on the following link and refer to page 11: www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/13029/49399/49399.pdf

How can I access this service?

Any health care professional can refer to the service using the referral form - to access this, download the Oxygen Referral Form from the 'Download Documents' section on the left side of this page. Complete the form and email it to: [email protected]

How to contact us 

 Call our Single Point of Access (SPA) on: 0117 903 0202

 Email: [email protected]

This service is open from Monday to Friday. We aim to contact patients within 2 working days of receiving the referral, and offer an appointment date within 2 weeks.