Pulmonary rehabilitation is a programme of exercise and education for people with respiratory conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary fibrosis.
The programme includes 12 supervised sessions run over six weeks by qualified health professionals. It is important that you attend all 12 sessions in order to gain the most benefit from the course.
When you suffer with a breathing problem becoming short of breath can be very frightening and uncomfortable and so you may naturally try to avoid activities that make you breathless. Over time this can result in you reducing the amount of activity that you do. This can lead to your muscles becoming weak, to you becoming increasingly unfit and ultimately more breathless.
This can then make it more difficult for you to do the activities you used to do and so may reduce your quality of life.
Pulmonary rehabilitation can help break this vicious cycle of reduced activity and increased breathlessness.
Pulmonary rehabilitation can help by:
The programme is run by qualified health professionals from Southend Hospital who specialise in lung conditions and is conducted over 6 weeks with two sessions per week (12 sessions in total)
Each of the 12 sessions are two hours long. The first hour is an exercise session tailored to your own abilities followed by an education session covering a variety of useful topics.
The classes are run in small groups of approximately 10 to 12 people who all have a long-term lung condition.
The pulmonary rehabilitation programme is run at three locations in this area so you can choose the course that suits you best. Each course is run in exactly the same way.
Southend Hospital course
This course is held in Gym 1 in the physiotherapy department at Southend Hospital on Tuesdays between 10.30am and 12.30pm and Thursdays between 10am and 12noon.
St Luke’s course
This course is held in St Luke’s Church Hall, St Luke’s Road, Southend, SS2 4AB on:
Canvey course
This course is held in Waterside farm leisure centre, Somnes Ave, Canvey Island, SS8 9RA on Tuesdays and Thursday between 1pm and 3pm.
You can be referred for pulmonary rehabilitation by your:
Please ask any of the above professionals that you see for a referral to pulmonary rehabilitation.
Once you have been referred for pulmonary rehabilitation, you will be contacted by a member of the team within a few weeks. They will ask you a few questions about your general health, the medication you are taking and how you are managing with your lung condition. They will then explain the programme in more detail and arrange for you to attend for an initial appointment.
Before attending the course, you will be invited to attend one of the above locations for an initial appointment. The location that you attend will be your own choice.
Please bring a list of your medication with you and the following if applicable:
Please make sure that you bring a bag as we cannot store your belongings during your appointment.
You can also bring along a family member or friend to support you during your assessment.
If you are unable to attend, please contact us to re-arrange your appointment. If you fail to attend without making contact with us, you will be discharged and the person who referred you will be informed.
The appointment will typically last between 60 to 90 minutes. This will include:
Please don't be concerned about the walk test or exercise tests the therapist will only ask you to do what you can.
We will provide you with a start date for the pulmonary rehabilitation programme. The location, dates and times of the programme will be discussed at the appointment.
You will be encouraged to do some exercise at home as well to help to increase your activity. This will be discussed with you.
It's important that you attend all 12 sessions in order to gain the most benefit from the course. If you miss a session this can be added onto the end of the six weeks so you don’t miss out.
If you or your support person has any questions, please do ask the healthcare professional who is working with you.
Alternative options are available if you feel that it may be difficult to attend twice a week for six weeks at the moment:
With both of these alternative options you will still attend an initial face to face appointment at one of the locations above so that we can accurately assess your abilities and safely design your exercise programme.
Please discuss this with a member of the team when they call.
When you have finished your course, you will be invited to a final face to face session to repeat the exercise tests that you performed at your initial appointment. This will allow you to see the improvements that you have made.
You will be encouraged to continue to exercise to maintain and improve your general fitness. An individualised plan will be developed with you at the end of the course.
There are several ways in which this can be achieved, including:
We will discuss these options with you while you are attending the programme.
We also encourage people to join the local support groups, held monthly, run by people with long term lung conditions.
Asthma and Lung UK - https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation - https://www.pulmonaryfibrosis.org
Action for PF – https://www.actionpf.org
Breathe Easy Support Group (Southend) — visit https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/help/support-network/southend-breathe-easy-support-group-affiliated-asthma-lung-uk every first Wednesday of every month between 1pm and 3pm. These are held at St Edmunds Hall, St Edmunds Close, Southend, SS2 4AS. For more information, email breatheeasysouthend@hotmail.co.uk.
For more information about Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the location of the courses in your area, visit https://breathebetter.midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk.
For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us on 07900 656211 or by emailing mse.pulmonaryrehabilitation@nhs.net.
Alternatively, you can pop into one of the above sites at the times stated to chat with a member of the team.