Primary Care Community Respiratory Service

This Community Respiratory Team provides care and support to patients in a community setting who have a diagnosis of COPD, Bronchiectasis or Interstitial Lung Disease.  The aim of the service is to enable Primary Care Professionals to identify and manage these respiratory patients with complex needs in the primary care setting. There are three teams located across the South Eastern Trust and they work closely with secondary and primary care to ensure the patient receives the right care at the right time by the right health care professional. The team consists of specialist nurses and physiotherapists with limited dietetic access.

Community management includes:

  • Appointments in both clinics and home visits
  • Medication Management- This includes inhaler and nebuliser therapy reviews, inhaled drug challenges, oxygen prescribing, exacerbation management with antibiotics/steroids as appropriate by multi-disciplinary team prescribers and GPs
  • Chronic Disease management
  • Oxygen Assessment and review
  • Airway clearance
  • Breathlessness management
  • Palliative Care
  • Promoting expert self-management plan
  • Smoking Cessation advice and prescription
  • Home Exercise Programmes
  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Each patient is assessed on an individual basis; social support is included as part of their assessment and referral made to other members of the multi-disciplinary team (e.g. occupational therapy, dietician) as appropriate. As the patient travels through their pathway of disease the emphasis on care changes and the team endeavour to meet this demand.


Elderly woman receiving oxygen therapy

Contact Details

Down & Lisburn Teams

Call us(028) 9598 8000

North Down and Ards Team

Call us(028) 9151 5365