What is Pulmonary Rehabilitation?

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Pulmonary rehabilitation is an activity and education programme for people living with long term lung conditions. It is designed to help you manage your breathing, allow you to live a more fulfilling life and make your day-to-day living easier. It consists of an individualised exercise/activity programme, tailored to your needs, and education and advice on your lung condition.

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Who is the programme for?

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Anybody with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), who is limited by their breathlessness. Your GP or practice nurse can refer you or you can also be referred by the community COPD team if you are under their care. You may also be referred by your consultant after spending some time in hospital.

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How to get started?

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Once we have received your referral for pulmonary rehabilitation, we will invite you to an introduction talk. This talk is to explain what the programme includes and how it works. After the talk, we will then book you in for an individual assessment.

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Individual assessment

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Your individual assessment will be with one of our Exercise Physiologists, where they will discuss:

• How you are currently coping with your lung condition

• Your overall health & wellbeing

• Complete an exercise assessment to determine your own individual starting point

 

Starting the programme

 

After your individual assessment, you will be enrolled on to the programme. The programme is 16 sessions, attending twice a week for 8 weeks, on a Wednesday and Friday afternoon.

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Exercise class

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You will be supervised by exercise professionals in a safe, friendly and supportive environment. Our team will always be on hand to help with your exercise, but more importantly ensure that you are enjoying it! The session will include a group warm-up, followed by individualised aerobic and strength exercise based on your own needs.

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Education sessions

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Take place once a week on a Wednesday afternoon before you exercise. They are run by our exercise team, COPD nurses and physiotherapists. They are more of an informal discussion and chat around different topics.  

 

Topics covered include:

• What is COPD?

• Benefits of physical activity

• Breathing control

• Exacerbation management

• Medications

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For more information about pulmonary rehabilitation please contact us on 02476 234570, or email us at info@atrium-health.co.uk. If you are a health professional and wish to refer a patient to our service, the referral forms are available on the GP gateway.