"It's OK to get out of breath"

The Respiratory Engagement for Sheffield CCG has been running for two weeks now, a massive thanks to those of you who have contributed so far. It has been great to hear your experiences, many of them positive, they will help us to recognise what is working and the practices we need to ensure are provided consistently across the city when planning for the future.

Along with my colleague Helen Mulholland, we have also run some group sessions this week. We have spoken to a Pulmonary Rehabilitation session and the local Breathe Easy Group. Again we have received many positive messages about the care people in Sheffield have received as well as skills they have been taught to help them manage their condition. Having a strict daily regime including using medication as advised, pulmonary rehabilitation, regular exercise and the importance to individuals of their support network have come through strongly as key themes this week. For me the quote of the week has been ‘it’s ok to get out of breath’. It is something we all do, when exercising, doing housework or just walking up the stairs at home too quickly, so it was great to hear a patient saying that the regular exercise had helped them to push their own personal boundaries in being able to walk to the local shops. He told us of the skills he had learnt at Pulmonary Rehabilitation to prevent any anxiety when he became breathless, which tells us how important these sessions are for people with respiratory conditions.

With regards to areas for development, we have heard of stories of samples taking too long to come back and of individuals researching what the best treatment for them might be for discussion with their GP. These have been individual stories so it would be good for us to know whether these issues are common or not. Being able to make a prompt diagnosis and ensuring patients receive the correct medication are so important when treating pneumonia and managing long term conditions like COPD and Asthma so we need to ensure we get this right consistently. If there are any other areas where things could be better, we need to hear about them so please let us know.

Over the next few weeks we have more group focus sessions planned and the CCG will be running a live Twitter feed with Dr Ted Turner on 13th March 2015 at 1pm using #RespiratorySheffield. You can find us on Twitter @NHSSheffieldCCG. We still want to hear from as many respiratory patients in Sheffield via Patient Opinion, so please keep your submissions coming in.