New partnership and mobile spirometry unit supports patients with respiratory conditions

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital (LHCH) and the University of Liverpool recently opened a new Mobile Spirometry Unit.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Janet Beer joined LHCH Chief Executive, Jane Tomkinson in visiting the new mobile unit that will be used by the LHCH Respiratory Team to provide a comprehensive service for patients with a range of respiratory conditions both in the hospital and in the local community – caring for over 40,000 people each year.

The mobile unit and the LHCH Respiratory Team’s programme is the first of its kind in the UK.

Jennifer Furlong, Advanced Clinical Physiologist and Deputy Manager of Respiratory Diagnostics, said: “For those of us working in respiratory medicine the Covid-19 pandemic has meant facing many difficulties in trying to treat patients with lung disease.  Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital has worked unceasingly to ensure all those that needed access were provided with help. This new unit gives us the additional facilities to allow us to do this as well as enabling us to deal with increasing demand – reaching out into the community."

Among many of its uses, the unit will take diagnostic testing out into the community targeting those most at risk and most in need of support, in boroughs across Merseyside. It expands the services LHCH is offering including targeted lung health checks and cancer screening. Longer term it is hoped that this may be a template for other respiratory teams across the UK, facing similar problems in this post-COVID era.

Jane Tomkinson, Chief Executive, said: “This wonderful new facility shows how partners working together can bring enormous benefits to our patients and the wider community in Liverpool.   Together, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and the University of Liverpool, are delighted to be able to deliver this expanded service to meet the needs of the many patients who require access to respiratory diagnostics.”

Professor Dame Janet Beer, said: ‘‘It was an honour to launch the new mobile unit at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital which will provide a life changing service for the local community. I am proud of our partnership and this unit is testament to the hard work and ingenuity of its staff who are also training the medical professionals of the future.’

LHCH would like to thank LHCH Charity for its support, the University of Liverpool and especially the Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust, whose gift made this unit possible.