The department consists of seven staff - six Respiratory Physiologists and an Assistant Technical Officer. We all carry out a wide range of basic and specialist respiratory investigations and therapeutic assessments.
The department is a recognised training centre for Yorkshire and Humberside's Respiratory students, who undertake clinical placements with us as part of their BSC Hons in Clinical Physiology. We are also a registered national training
centre for Spirometry and we have a number of assessors in-house that are
regular professional body national assessors for physiologists undergoing their
Part 1 and 2 examinations.
Where are we?
We are located on A Level of the main hospital site, within the Medical Physics area.
What do we do?
We offer a range of services, clinics and investigations for patients, from sleep disorders to oxygen assessment services. Most of our clinics are physiologist led and are held in the Outpatients department. You may come to visit us based on a referral either from your doctor, or from another department in the hospital. Some patients may visit us for assessment before and after scheduled surgery.
See below for more details about our various clinics or treatments.
Respiratory investigations on both adults and children, including:
- Full lung function tests for people experiencing breathing problems.
- Spirometry - this test measures the amount of air you can blow out.
- Bronchodilator Response - this test assesses if respiratory drugs designed to open up airways will be beneficial to specific patients.
- Bronchial challenge tests - this tests measures how reactive a patient's airways are.
- Nebuliser assessments - this checks if inhaled nebuliser therapy is beneficial to specific patients.
- Body Plethysmography - this test provides assitional information on lung function e.g. total thoracic gas volume, airways resistance.
- Respiratory Muscle Tests - this assesses respiratory muscle strength/weakness.
- Allergy testing - this test assesses if a patient demonstrates an allergic reaction to specific allergens, e.g. grass pollen, cat dander.
- Capillary blood gases - this checks a patient's blood gas status e.g. oxygen and carbon dioxide content within the blood.
These tests provide valuable information to help assess your lung capacity, calibre of airways, transfer of gases and can confirm or exclude suspected muscle weakness or suspected atopy. We also offer a comprehensive sleep disordered breathing service, oxygen assessment and cardio pulmonary exercise testing.
Sleep disordered breathing service
This service provides a physiologist led clinic where you will be screened for possible sleep disorders and undergo a 1:1 consultation, routine medical investigations and variety of home or inpatient sleep studies. These include overnight oximetry, airflow measurements and respiratory polysomnography. If you are found to have Obstructive Sleep Apnoea we will provide you with a trial of auto titrating Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP). Our sleep services are overseen by Dr Bardsley, who is the clinical lead for sleep disorders.
What is CPAP Therapy?
This is done on a one to one basis and specialist support is provided by physiologists on a regular and controlled basis; where you will get access to a wide range of equipment to help your treatment. We have close links to both Ear Nose and Throat department, for patients to be referred for assessment, and Orthodontics where simple snorers can be fitted with Mandibular Advancement Devices (similar to gum shields) to help reduce severe snoring.
Oxygen assessment services
This is a clinic which provides assessment and review for patients with or suspected of needing oxygen therapy. Our assessments include long term oxygen therapy (LTOT), ambulatory (portable) oxygen therapy or requirements for oxygen during air travel. This service also provides educational information for any patient and their family that might need oxygen therapy. We ensure that all patients get the most appropriate oxygen delivery system to fit in with their lifestyle and enhance their quality of life. Our oxygen assessment services are overseen by Dr Basran, our Respiratory Consultant.
Cardio Respiratory exercise testing
This measures your capacity to exercise and is used when we are assessing unexplained breathlessness or to help identify factors which might limit your ability to exercise. We offer measurement of oxygen consumption, "VO2 max" and "anaerobic threshold" for patients before and after surgery. We also provide a service to test for and diagnose exercise induced asthma to to find out whether breathlessness is related to Cardiac or Respiratory problems.
Patient involvement
We feel that part of our service is to include our patients as much
as possible so although it is the doctor’s role to give information
regarding the results of investigations, we will endeavour to include our
patients as much as possible in their consultations with us, specifically on how
to perform the tests effectively and why we are doing
them.
