The COPD Pathway with Jonathon Will and Tom Fardon

In this session we will examine a new pathway which is emerging within Scotland and north of England. The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) pathway has been designed to both specialise treatment and expedite specialist care to this cohort of patients. NHS data shows that in 2020/21, approximately 1.17 million people in England have been diagnosed with COPD, which is around 1.9% of the population. 

To host the conversation I have Jonathon Will with me. Jonathon is a registered Paramedic working with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), he has also worked as an Emergency Care Paramedic within various Emergency Department Resuscitation units. His last two years has been spent working as the Clinical Effectiveness Lead within SAS and a National improvement Advisor for urgent and unscheduled care within NHS Scotland. Tom Fardon is a Respiratory Consultant within NHS Tayside, with a specialist interest in airways disease (COPD, Asthma and Bronchiectasis). Tom is also the clinical lead for the managed clinical network within Tayside and the chair of the national advisory group for respiratory medicine, also the lead for respiratory care action plan within NHS Scotland. He also leads the Scottish Respiratory advisory committee to initiate the recommendations within the respiratory care action plan. In the conversation we talk about: 

* The pathology of COPD; what’s going on with these patients and how these patients normally present to the ambulance service. 

* Physiological tolerance and adaptation over time. 

* Why this pathway has been designed? (what is the current problem)

* How the key clinicians and specialisms have been brought together * End points that the pathway serves 

* Improvements to the current services

* What tiers of patients this pathway serves 

* What happens to the life-threatening COPD patients 

* What a patient could expect when they go through the pathway. 

* What the future holds 

* Take homes messages  

Please find more about the pathway here: https://www.consultantconnect.org.uk/copd-pathway-tayside/

Consultant Connect are partly responsible for supporting this pathway and can be found here: https://www.consultantconnect.org.uk/ 

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