Gloucestershire’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) Service, provided by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), has been successful in achieving the Royal College of Physicians Pulmonary Rehabilitation Services Accreditation.
This national accreditation provides independent and impartial recognition that the service demonstrates high levels of quality against established standards. Accreditation is recommended in the NHS England commissioning standards and supported by the Care Quality Commission.
The GHC PR team have worked relentlessly for over a year, reviewing and updating processes and working through a programme of service and quality improvements. The final hurdle was an on-site visit from the PR Services Accreditation Scheme (SAS) assessors when, after a presentation, the assessors visited PR classes where they talked to patients. GHC Chief Executive Douglas Blair was also in attendance.
It has taken considerable dedication and motivation for the PR team to achieve this whilst continuing to provide the PR programme to patients. Only 25 organisations are accredited across England and only one other in the South West region; many sign up but never make it to accreditation.
Dr Graham Mennie, GP and Gloucestershire Clinical Programme Board Clinical Lead for Respiratory Care, said:
“Pulmonary Rehabilitation is a key element in the way we manage patients with certain types of respiratory disease. We have a high-quality service in Gloucestershire, and I am delighted that this has been recognised by gaining this accreditation from the Royal College of Physicians.”
Dr Charlie Sharp, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“Pulmonary Rehabilitation is vital to improving and maintaining the health of patients with disabling respiratory disease. The programme in Gloucestershire has been improving constantly over many years and it is brilliant to see this recognised with RCP accreditation, acknowledging the vital, hard work of the team.”
Angela Stonham, Integrated Respiratory Clinical Lead to the Gloucestershire Respiratory Service, from Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“The Pulmonary Rehabilitation team is proud to have achieved PRSAS accreditation, a testament to the high-quality service we provide and our unwavering dedication to improving the health and wellbeing of people living with chronic respiratory diseases.”
NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the NHS England South West Respiratory Clinical Network provided funding to the Commissioning Support Unit to support the process.
The PR SAS assessors commented that the service has demonstrated ‘excellent achievement’ in several areas. This accreditation means that patients can feel confident in their pulmonary rehabilitation service and be assured of receiving high quality, safe consistent care.