“Staying well this winter has never been more important. We all need to consider how we protect ourselves from respiratory infections and take care of our friends and family to keep them well too. Protect yourselves, protect your family and protect those around you by taking simple steps such as wearing a face mask, socially distancing, and hand washing.”
Dr Richard Russell, Consultant Physician and Respiratory Lead for NHS England and NHS Improvement South East
Special thanks to all patients and staff of the pulmonary rehabilitation workshop at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust for sharing their views and agreeing to be filmed. Interviews conducted by Anne Oates, Quality Improvement Lead, NHS England and NHS Improvement South East.
Social distancing rules were maintained at all times throughout this filming process.
“If offered a pulmonary rehabilitation class by your local NHS service, please do attend to find out how keeping active and exercising can help keep you out of hospital especially this winter.
“Our experienced, multi-professional pulmonary rehabilitation team will also guide you through some breathing techniques and update you on inhalers, medications and other helpful information to manage your lung condition. Some pulmonary rehabilitation courses are delivered in person in small groups when appropriate and others use online exercises, but both options will be beneficial to your lungs this winter.”
Sara Bolton, physiotherapist and South East Regional Chief Allied Health Professional
The Covid pandemic has affected every aspect of healthcare. Continuing to provide healthcare for all has been hard at times, especially during last winter. However, there is a silver lining in understanding how to prevent chest infections and thus reduce illness in our society and therefore reduce pressure on hospitals.
We have listened to our patients, those with long-term respiratory conditions, and they have told us that wearing face masks, appropriate social distancing behaviour, and good hand hygiene practice is important to them.
We know from last winter that these measures work and we want you to respond to what our patients are telling us to do. Our response to this, both as individuals and society, should be to maintain mask wearing and take care in places where social distancing is required.
At the time of writing we are entering a new period of mandatory mask wearing in shops and public transport as precautions against the Omicron Covid-19 variant. The evidence suggests that anyone who is clinically vulnerable should consider what additional level of social distancing they are going to take and in what situations, including what they will ask of those around them; family, carers and friends, to protect against not just a possible further wave of Covid-19 but all the usual winter viruses and flu.
Mini Poll – please answer the question below
(Choose suitable Q)
Loading ...4,500+
the average number of extra emergency respiratory hospital admissions we usually expect to see amongst people over the age of 65, in the peak month of January alone across hospitals in the South East of England.
-5,500
In January 2021, we saw 5,500 less emergency admissions across this same group, largely as a result of Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing measures.
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