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Take action to reduce winter pressures with NHS respiratory delivery pack

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NHS RightCare have published a Respiratory Delivery Pack to help healthcare professionals to take action to reduce winter pressures this winter to by focusing on respiratory patients – particularly those with COPD, adult asthma and flu/pneumonia.

Developed by the North Region Respiratory Programme, the nine-page pack offers practical advice, based on expert clinical opinion, including from PCRS, and available evidence that may help reduce non-elective admissions and bed days, and improve patient outcomes.  

The document sets out the importance of focusing on respiratory issues noting that in the northern region “over the last seven years, respiratory admissions have risen at over three times the rate of other conditions – 36.6% vs 11.1% and are significantly higher from December to March.”

The region has identified respiratory disease as a regional collaborative priority due to higher than average incidences of respiratory admissions and disease in the region: "Respiratory accounts for the highest proportion (19.6%) of the total variation identified in non-elective admissions across the nine highest spending programme areas and may significantly impact on several key regional priority areas including the emergency care system, non-elective admissions and patients stranded in hospital," says the document.

The pack sets out interventions, the reasons for them and offers links to practical examples and tools for implementation.  It also sets out ways to respond to crises and how to prevent them.

Dr Noel Baxter, PCRS Chair, says: “This respiratory delivery pack from the Northern region of NHS England helpfully sets out a clear framework of what will deliver better value care this winter and beyond. The authors have listened carefully to the respiratory community, who have been developing the materials over some years now, to support clinicians and commissioners who want to make improvements. Whether you are an STP in the North or not this pack can help you have conversations locally to consider how you will respond to the respiratory asks of the NHS Long Term Plan.”