Pulmonary Rehabilitation Service

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 6 weeks by qualified health professionals. It is important that you attend all 12 sessions in order to gain the most benefit from the course. 

Importance of excercise and how it can help

If you suffer with a breathing problem becoming short of breath can be very frightening and uncomfortable and 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 by:

• Reducing your breathlessness
• Increaseing the muscle strength in your arms and legs
• Increasing your stamnia and endurance
• Giving you a better understanding of your condition
• Increasing your confidence in your own abilities to control your symptoms, such as breathlessness
• Increasing independence in your everyday life
• Improving your health-related quality of life

The programme is run by our team 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 2 hrs long. The 1st hour is an exercise session tailored to your own abilities followed by an education session covering a variety of subjects. 

The classes are run in small groups of approx. 10-12 people who all have a long-term lung condition. We have several locations you can choose from and each course is run in exactly the same format. 

Canvey

• Tuesday 1pm to 3pm, Waterside Farm leisure centre, Somnes Ave, Canvey Island SS8 9RA
• Thursday 1pm to 3pm, Waterside Farm leisure centre, Somnes Ave, Canvey Island SS8 9RA

Southend Hospital

• Tuesday 10.30am to 12.30pm at Gym 1, Physiotherapy department, Southend University Hospital SS0 0RY
• Thursday 10am, to 12pm at Gym 1, Physiotherapy department, Southend University Hospital SS0 0RY

St Luke's

• Wednesday 10am to 2pm*, St Luke's Church Hall, St Luke's Road, Southend, SS2 4AB
• Friday 11am to 3pm*, St Luke's Church Hall, St Luke's Road, Southend, SS2 4AB

*The session will be 2 hours between these times.

To be referred to our programme please discuss with:

• Your GP or Practice Nurse
• Your community nursing team
• Your hospital specialist doctor and/or nurse
• Your nurse or doctor during an admission to hospital
• Any healthcare professional that you have contact with.

Once you have been referred you will be contacted by a member of our team within a few weeks. We will need to have a discussion about your general health, medication, and condition. In that discussion we will also arrange for you to attend an assessment to discover the correct level of excersise. 

After this assessment you will then be given a date to start the course which should be in a couple of weeks depending on the location that you choose. 

You will be expected to carry out a home exercise programme independently alongside the our service  to enhance your activity. It is 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 6 weeks so you don’t miss out. 

Aftercare 

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 assessment. This will allow you to see the improvements that you have made.  

We encourage you to continue these exercise to maintain and improve your general fitness and we will provide you with an individualised plan.

These may include:

• A home exercise programme
• Attending a local gym
• Attending an exercise group
• Joining the local Breathe-Easy support group, this is held monthly and run by people with long term lung conditions.

For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Telephone: 07900 656211 

Email: mse.pulmonary.rehab@nhs.net 

 

We understand that it may be difficult to attend sessions twice a week so we do have alternative options available.

Virtual Pulmonary rehab

Our classes can be delivered virtually to you. You will access these session online from your home via your computer or tablet. These are live sessions deliveried by our team, enabling you to perform the exercises at home, whilst being supervised remotely and participate in the education sessions.

Rehab at home programme

With our home programme you will carry out the exercises independently at home, unsupervised, over a 6 week period. You will receive a pack of written educational material. During the 6 weeks you will receive 2 phone calls from the Pulmonary Rehab team to help to monitor your progress and answer any questions that yo may have.  

These alternative options you will still need to attend an initial face to face assessment at one of the locations above in so that we can accurately assessment your abilities and safely prescribe your exercise programme. If you are interested please discuss this with a member of our team.