Can patients with bronchiectasis in grampian use online physiotherapy resources and patient information leaflets to self manage their condition?

Abstract

Purpose: At present within NHS Grampian there is minimal Respiratory Physiotherapy provision in primary care. Aberdeenshire is a large geographical area, with the specialist respiratory services based in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. This requires patients to travel long distances for a Respiratory specialist review. Furthermore due to a lack of standardised pathway for patients with Bronchiectasis, there is an even greater waiting time before they are seen, even in the acute sector. To add to this, there are ongoing staff recruitment difficulties locally which mean there is only resource for more complex patients to be assessed. With this, a Bronchiectasis toolkit was developed to provide airway clearance advice to all patients in NHS Grampian. The aim of the toolkit is to provide information that is accessible to all patients within the area, to reduce the length of time before they are provided with physiotherapy advice about airway clearance,exercise and improve patient outcomes.