A better breathing clinic has been launched at Swanage Hospital organised by a charity that provides care to patients facing life-limiting illness across Purbeck, Poole and East Dorset.
The Lewis-Manning Hospice Care clinic is part of its new plan to bring specialist health care closer to local communities.
This makes it easier for patients to get treatment without having to make long exhausting journeys.
The team helping to bring the new clinic to Swanage Hospital, left to right: Pat Edmunds, Vicki Gray, Sally Churchill, Louise Hopley, David Dean, Jo Whale and Paddy Rideal
“The heart of the community in Swanage”
Lewis-Manning Hospice Care’s director of clinical services, Jo Whale said:
“The hospice’s better breathing clinic has previously only ever operated out of the hospice in Poole.
“As part of our current strategy to bring care ‘closer to home’, we have been expanding our services to hubs across the communities of Poole, East Dorset and Purbeck.
“We are delighted that this service is now being offered in the heart of the community in Swanage.”
The better breathing clinic has only before operated out of its hospice in Poole
“Breathlessness can be frightening“
The clinic will be run by Lewis-Manning’s respiratory specialist physiotherapist, Louise Hopley. She added:
“The service will be run out of Swanage Hospital, with regular appointments available to patients needing help and support with their life-limiting condition.
“Breathlessness can be frightening. We help people with respiratory conditions, such as COPD and lung cancer. The clinic is very patient centred – it is about listening to each person’s journey and their individual experience of breathlessness and how it impacts their lives.
“The assessment is an opportunity for me to learn about what coping strategies the individual already uses and together we look at other ways to help such as breathing techniques, positions to ease breathlessness, and fan therapy.”
Lewis-Manning Hospice Care is a charity and supported by fundraising events like the craft stall in Swanage at the Rotary Christmas Market
Free hospice care services
A patient may be referred to the better breathing clinic by their GP or any healthcare professional directly linked to their care.
Lewis-Manning Hospice Care is a charity established 29 years ago that offers a range of free hospice care services aimed at helping local people to live well through their illness, closer to home.
Every year it supports nearly 500 local people, increasing physical and social well-being, reducing isolation and loneliness, supporting people to stay in their homes longer, and alleviating the pressures on family and carers.
To do this, it has to raise more than £1.6m annually to fund its work.
Further information
More about the better breathing clinic can be found out by calling 01202 708470 and asking to speak to the better breathing team or via the Lewis-Manning website
