Community Lung Health Day, Lambeth & Southwark
Project overview, including who was involved in the project
On the 11-March-2025 the Community Lung Health Day Lambeth & Southwark was carried out to support patients with respiratory disease with improving their lung health and their Vital 5 (Alcohol, Healthy Weight, Hypertension, Mental Health and Tobacco Dependency) through addressing social determinants of health. Patients were identified via the local pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) waiting list. Patients attended the event at different start times over several hours and upon arrival were given physical Community Lung Health Day booklets where they could identify the stands they wanted to visit and at the stands any relevant information could be recorded by the patient or the professional. Patients were free to interact with each other and to feedback about their experience attending. Refreshments and rest areas were available for patients (and staff).Other aims of the event were to increase successful enrolment into PR and to improve integration of Integrated Respiratory Team (IRT) and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise organisations in Lambeth & Southwark
On the day success of the event was assessed via the following methods:
• patients were asked how they found the day, and feedback was also sought from attending organisations.
• numbers of interactions at each organisation stand were collated
Project website (with video of the event) is available via: https://www.selondonics.org/supporting-patients-to-manage-their-lung-conditions/
Who was involved in this work/project?
- NHS Southeast London & King's Health Partners led the project.
- Organisations supporting/in attendance: local pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) team, respiratory nurses and pharmacists, smoking cessation services, dietitian services, citizen advice bureau, local councils, library services, Southwark and Lambeth IAPT, local gyms, charities e.g. Green Doctors, Mind, Asthma & Lung UK
Project outcomes/impact
• 55 patients booked into sessions• 27 (49%) patients turned up
• 26 patients completed feedback survey
• Patients’ descriptions of the session included: helpful, people in person, informative, knowledgeable, health and inhaler help
• 88% of patients selected they would be ‘very likely’ to attend a similar event, with a further 8% selecting ‘somewhat likely’
• 100% of organisations present would attend a similar event
Benefits:
• Networking with the organisations present
• Staff much more knowledgeable about what is available and how/who to contact
• Active Lambeth planned to consider setting up an exercise on referral pathway for respiratory (not currently provided)
• Green Doctors agreed to do a teaching session for the team
• Library and digital literacy- improved awareness of what is provided
• Citizens Advice Bureau noted to be especially important in current times
If you were to run the project again, what would you do differently?
Lessons learned included:• The need to start recruitment earlier
• More targeted recruitment of those patients not engaging with PR
• Awareness of DNA rate - invite more patients with knowledge ~ 50% will not attend
• Possibly later start or longer session
• Increase number/type of organisations in attendance