BTS and PCRS announce integrated care collaboration

BTS and PCRS believe that the way to improve respiratory care is to provide fully integrated services for patients, many of whom will have co-morbidities and multiple needs. The COVID pandemic has highlighted how a disjointed and fragmented approach to care has worsened outcomes for patients, heightened health inequalities and the challenge now is to drive forward transformative change towards more effective integrated care. 

Each organisation has, and will retain its own range of resources to support various elements of integrated service provision, but each wishes to do more to share these and promote both the vison and the means by which integration can be achieved.  Moreover in the spirit and ethos of integration, cross-boundary working and multi-professional collaboration both organisations are keen to demonstrate unity and cohesion.

Professor Jon Bennett, BTS Chair, said: “We believe that closer working between BTS and PCRS in a systematic and committed way will help to drive forward more effective integrated service provision. Together we can work to maximise the reach and exposure of shared tools and resources, reduce duplication, and provide a consistent approach on behalf of our patients”.

“Establishing this new working group allows us to pool our expertise and resources, share intelligence and identify gaps and areas of need. Together we can use resources to maximum benefit for members of our organisations, the wider respiratory community and ultimately the patients we all serve”.

Carol Stonham, Executive Chair of PCRS said: “PCRS and BTS are working together to demonstrate how integrated respiratory services will improve services delivered for people with respiratory disease. The patient pathway should be so seamless that patients should be unaware of boundaries between primary and secondary care. In collaborating and working together PCRS and BTS will be working to drive a truly integrated vision of how seamless care could be delivered throughout the respiratory patient journey.”

A new joint working group has been established, co-chaired by Dr Daryl Freeman and Dr Sarah Sibley and full details of the working group membership are included below.

Members of the BTS/PCRS Joint Working Group for Integrated Care

DR SARAH SIBLEY, Consultant Respiratory Physician (Co-Chair of the Joint Working Group)

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital

Dr Sarah Sibley is a Consultant Respiratory Physician at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and Community Respiratory Clinical Lead.  Over the last nine years she has led and developed the award winning ‘Knowsley Community Respiratory Service’ delivering integrated care services for the local population.  Sarah has recently been appointed at the Respiratory Clinical Lead for the Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Clinical Network and also sits on the BTS Future Models of Care and Workforce committee.  Recently she has been working in partnership with NHSE/I, Rightcare, HEE and others, leading work across the North of England and Cheshire and Merseyside to reduce care variation and improve health outcomes.

DR DARYL FREEMAN, Associate Clinical Director (Co-Chair of the Joint Working Group)

Norfolk Community Health & Care

Daryl Freeman was a GP in North Norfolk. In November 2017 she left General Practice to become an Associate Clinical Director for Norfolk Community Health & Care. Her roles within the Trust are to work with the emerging PCNs to provide care for elderly patients across Norfolk. She is also Chair of the Norfolk & Waveney Right Care Respiratory Working Group. As a result of Covid much of the strategic work has taken a back seat as developing 6 IP Units to cope with the pandemic took priority.

MS SAMANTHA PILSWORTH, Consultant Respiratory Physiotherapist 

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital

Sam is a Consultant Respiratory Physiotherapist working for the Knowsley Community Respiratory service; she has worked for the service since 2012.  Sam is leading the Pulmonary Rehabilitation arm of the Cheshire and Merseyside respiratory improvement programme which has focused on cross boundary working, new ways of working (including increasing digital access and support) and developing a single pathway for the region.

Sam’s clinical interests include pulmonary rehabilitation, palliative care in non-malignant respiratory disease, health inequalities and drug misuse.  Sam is about to undertake a PhD programme of work focusing on pulmonary rehabilitation and patient uptake rates.

MS DOMINIKA FROEHLICH-JEZIOREK, Senior practice pharmacist 

Lancashire, North West England

Dominika Froehlich-Jeziorek is a senior practice pharmacist and a pharmacy team lead in North West England. She has extensive experience across various sectors, including commissioning teams and higher education. Her clinical interests are focused on the management of respiratory diseases, chronic pain and dermatological conditions. She is passionate about clinical education and works as a lecturer and tutor to develop and deliver high-quality and accessible training for healthcare professionals.

DR HELEN WARD, Consultant Respiratory Physician

New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton

Helen Ward has been a Consultant Respiratory Physician at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust since February 2013. She is the clinical lead for the Community Transformation Programme at the trust and the Clinical Lead on the Acute Medical Unit. She has a particular interest in integrated care and end of life care in non-malignant respiratory disease.

Since March 2019 she has been a trustee for the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and a member of the BTS board. She also represents the BTS on the NHS England Respiratory Delivery Board which has oversight of the delivery of the Long-Term Plan (LTP) for Respiratory and is the chair for the Breathlessness national LTP work stream. 

MS JOANNE KING, Respiratory Consultant Nurse 

Frimley Health NHS Trust

Joanne qualified in 1991 and has been a senior nurse at Frimley Health (formerly Heatherwood & Wexham Park) NHS Trust for 21 years in a variety of acute roles. In the past 11 years she has been in post as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in respiratory, and more recently a Respiratory Consultant Nurse, managing the COPD supported discharge and admission avoidance services alongside the Home Oxygen Assessment and Review service as the clinical HOS lead.   Joanne has restructured the respiratory services in Berkshire East to form The Adult Integrated Respiratory Service or AIR team which launched in October 2016.

Joanne is a member of the British Thoracic Society, Primary Care Respiratory Society, European Respiratory Society and the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists. Joanne is the COPD lead for ARNS and also chairs the local respiratory forum and specialist nursing group.

MS JACQUELINE POLLINGTON, Respiratory Nurse Consultant

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

Jacqui Pollington is the respiratory nurse consultant responsible for BreathingSpace in Rotherham. She set up the first HAH for COPD nursing service in Yorkshire in 2000 and has a longstanding interest in integrated respiratory care.  She was a co-author of the BTS standards of care for home oxygen. She recently served as clinical lead for the South Yorkshire Bassetlaw ICS QUIT programme – treating tobacco addiction in hospital.  After 30 years she is still intrigued by respiratory patients.

DR STUART SHIELDS, GP 

St Ives, Cambridgeshire

Stuart has been a GP since 1995, involved in commissioning since the days of fund holding right through to the current model. The ever present need for improving respiratory care has led to him supporting the Respiratory society in the ambitions to demonstrate, describe and disseminate the best standards of care for the most in need of it.