This update from PCRU guest editor and PCRS Executive Chair, Katherine Hickman, gives an overview of the latest edition of the update.

In this edition, we focus on COPD and revisit the 2017 PCRS consensus on COPD treatment titled 'Keeping it Simple.' The updated algorithm aligns with the latest GOLD and NICE guidance, and maintains a focus on patient-centred treatment grounded in evidence, medication optimisation, and continuous

In this episode we dive into the topic of breathing pattern disorder. Anna Spathis a Consultant working in Palliative Medicine is in conversation with Catherine Moffat - a specialist respiratory physiotherapist.

This episode features Dr Fiona Mosgrove, GP with special interest in respiratory medicine, in conversation with Professor Robin Taylor, consultant physician with NHS Lanarkshire. Robin has in-depth experience of difficult prognostic conversations with patients with progressive lung disease.

Spirometry is a component of the diagnosis and management of respiratory conditions in primary care and should ideally be performed via referral to a primary care network respiratory diagnostic service or community diagnostics centre (CDC) with expertise in the diagnosis of the most common respir

Primary care should seek to identify and provide proactive support to older people living with frailty.

PCRS recognises a need for improvement in the timely diagnosis of people living with chronic breathlessness and generally welcomes the NHS England diagnostic pathway support tool. PCRS has some concerns that a diagnostic algorithm can communicate an oversimplification of diagnosis.

PCRS advocate a pragmatic approach to the pharmacological management of patients with COPD guided by the predominance of breathlessness and/or exacerbations and the presence or absence of comorbid asthma.

As many as one-in-two healthcare attendances for breathing difficulties in Bradford could be triggered by breaches in daily air pollution limits, new research has uncovered. 

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) improves quality of life and reduces exacerbations and NICE guidelines recommend that PR should be offered to all patients who consider themselves functionally disabled due to their COPD.

People in places such as Blackpool, Liverpool and Inverclyde are amongst the most likely to be admitted to hospital in an emergency and die from their lung condition in the UK, according to

Image shows a 16 weeks post-conception human fetal lung. The branching airway tree is surrounded by bands of developing smooth muscle (green), which also labels the developing vasculature.

On 9 March 2023, the National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme (NACAP) launched its 2018/20 clinical outcomes summary report.

This issue of Primary Care Respiratory Update takes a look at the past, the present and the future.