Your Results

Our first webinar in this series was held on Wednesday 31st January 2024. Chaired by Dr Katherine Hickman (our PCRS Executive Chair), the focus was on the topic of Health Inequalities with guest speaker Ren Lawlor. The session explored how you, as an individual clinician, can actively support and advocate for your patients in addressing health inequalities, even when the challenges may seem daunting and beyond your immediate influence.

In this PCRS Greener Healthcare Campaign podcast Tracey Lonergan, Shakeela Riaz and Amanda Roberts (PCRS Patient Reference Group) discuss their experiences of living with, and living with family members with, respiratory disease. They touch on how they deal with indoor and outdoor air quality, the changes that they have made in their lives and homes, and the advice that they have received over the years. Tune in to hear useful tips and practices that they have put in place to help them and their loved ones deal with air quality in their lives.

Tackling smoking, reducing air pollution, improving access to healthcare for those experiencing health inequality and an improved focus on research and development to fit the needs of people experiencing health inequality should be the priorities for systems wanting to make respiratory health outcomes equal. Whilst primary care is in an ideal position to screen for, recognise, and treat the effects of poverty on respiratory health, the evidence for prevention interventions that have a direct effect on poverty are limited and do not have strong evidence to support them.

As part of our ongoing work around health inequalities, we have produced a short video resource on poverty and poor housing, and its impact on respiratory health.

Sixteen years ago I was diagnosed with COPD. My COPD means I get breathless very quickly now doing activities or things I previously did easily without and difficulty. Being as active as possible really helps me to manage my condition, so I have joined a gym for the first time as they have sessions purely for people with lung problems. Attending these sessions weekly has resulted in me being able to control the periods of breathlessness.

Respiratory infections are very common in winter and can be complex to assess. Infection with SARS-CoV-2, whilst prevalent year-round, is also more significant in winter and this article focuses on the assessment and management of people presenting with COVID-19 illness, as winter 2023/24 approaches.

Bronchoscopic and surgical treatments for people with COPD can improve their lung and exercise capacity, and quality and length of life for many years in addition to what medical treatments can achieve. This pragmatic guide has been developed to highlight to people working in primary care what bronchoscopic and surgical options are currently available, what is in the experimental pipeline, who might be suitable and how primary care can work with specialists to help patients make the right choice for them, prepare for surgery, and provide support afterwards.

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. Clinicians must undertake a holistic evaluation for alternative causes of persistent daily symptoms or repeated exacerbations and consider seeking advice from a respiratory specialist before escalating to triple therapy (a respiratory specialist may be a GP/nurse/consultant).

In this article the authors review current evidence and guidance for the treatment of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in order to bring up to date the Primary Care Respiratory Society (PCRS) consensus approach and algorithm first published in 2017 known as ‘Keeping it Simple’.