By Mia Fisher-Howe on September 30, 2022
We recently launched our first pulmonary rehabilitation physical exercise and education programme service. We pleased to say that within three months, some of our patients have completed the first batch of the six-week courses.
Claire Butler, Technical Instructor, comments:
“The programme has been a real hit. The patients have been really engaged and are always surprised at how well they do! One of our patients really struggled to walk for 10 minutes at the beginning of the course. After about halfway through the programme, she did 17 minutes. She just didn’t want to stop. It was amazing.”
It’s important to us that this course is accessible for all. So, we are proud to offer this course either face to face at one of our local venues or digitally:
- Face to face: The patient has 2 assessments, a medical assessment over the phone followed by an exercise test in person. They then complete 6 weeks of exercise and education at one of the venues face-to-face with the clinical team, like Claire for all their sessions.
- Digital: This option is for patients who would rather do it all remotely. The patient will get assessed virtually (e.g. on Teams) and then does the course on a digital device at home using CliniTouch Vie whilst being monitored by the clinical team via the platform and telephone calls.
When we took over this programme, it came with a backlog of 400+ patients waiting to get onto courses. Having different ways to access the course means we can get more patients completing our programme, empowering them to manage their health condition.
Claire Butler, Technical Instructor, comments:
“One of our patients who is doing the digital programme has loved that you can follow someone on video, that the platform is able to record everything, and you always have something to refer to if needed. He much prefers it to just a phone call.”
Bal Matharu, Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner, comments:
“At the pre-assessment we measure every patients baseline of health, Including exercise tests which demonstrate their limitations and questionnaires which help identify how their condition impacts their daily lives. We repeat these tests and questionnaires after their final session and compare the results.
These tests have a minimal clinical Improvement difference (MCID) which is the national guidelines standard to assess whether the patient has benefited from the programme, and our first cohort of patients have smashed the MCID in most If not all of the re-tests.”
We’re thrilled to be hiring two new members of staff to add to our fabulous pulmonary rehabilitation team. The additional staffing means we can get a lot more patients through the door, assessed and onto the courses.
This gold standard pulmonary rehabilitation course aims to set a solid foundation of exercise tailored for each patient and how to incorporate this into their lifestyles and it also equips them with the tools and knowledge to manage their health in the long-term. We’re thrilled to have had such positive feedback from our patients and we’re looking forward to continuing to empower those with lung conditions in future programmes. Read more about our service on our website.
CLI4270SEP22
