Respiratory care: heartening stories and lots of learning

The Patient Engagement for respiratory in Sheffield is now closed so it is now time to consolidate our thoughts around what respiratory patients in Sheffield have told us.

Over the last 6 weeks we have heard from people online through Patient Opinion, in group sessions at PulmonaryRehabilitation and BreatheEasy and we have met with patients on a 1:1 basis.

It has been heartening to hear so many patients provide positive feedback on their experiences of the healthcare they receive, in particular the value they have gotten form Pulmonary Rehabilitation. There have however been some important stories that highlighted that we’re not yet perfect in Sheffield for every patient. Some key points and learnings we gathered include;

• the hospital being so busy patients were delayed in getting to the right ward for the treatment they needed,
• patients having gaps in their knowledge of their condition and what it would mean for them in the long term
• Patient knowledge and confidence in when to access increased levels of care
• Communication through the system- repeating themselves to Doctors they haven’t seen before
• Variability in ease of GP access when their condition is deteriorating- knowing how to get better access

Consistency therefore seems to be the key. Consistency in the provision of urgent medical support, knowledge provided to patients about their condition and in the access to the things that will make the difference to patients.

In all, we have now spoken and/or heard from close to 50 people in the group sessions. I feel that there has been real value come from the stories we have been told, when making the decisions on how we will provide services going forward those voices will still be clear in our heads.