The physiotherapy department provides assessment and treatment to many services across the hospital, including:
Inpatient
- Cystic Fibrosis (adult)
- Bronchiectasis and Interstitial Lung Disease
- Respiratory Support and Sleep Centre
- Critical Care
- Cardiac Surgery
- Transplant - heart and lung (and gym sessions)
- Thoracic Surgery
- Cardiology
Outpatient
- Cystic Fibrosis (adult)
- Bronchiectasis and Interstitial Lung Disease
- Respiratory Support and Sleep Centre
- Pulmonary Rehabilitation
The physiotherapy team provides cover 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is a respiratory on-call service onsite from 16:30 to 21:00, and offsite from 21:00 to 08:30 for urgent/emergency respiratory treatment on weekdays. The weekend service has five physiotherapists (for respiratory treatment), and one physiotherapist on-call offsite from 16:30 to 08:30. In addition, two physiotherapy assistant practitioners provide rehabilitation treatment at weekends.
The department accepts undergraduate physiotherapists on placement from the universities of East Anglia and Hertfordshire, as well as MSc students.
Courses we run
- Basic Ventilation
- Advanced Ventilation
- Student Interviews
- Thoracic Surgery
Conferences we attend
- Internal courses: Thoracic Surgery course; Transplant study day; PEA study day; ECG course; Leadership training; Manager’s finance course; Line Manager’s Update; Conversations for Managers; Datix training; QIP training
- External courses: Delirium in ICU; UCL Critical Care Update; ACPCF Study Days; Pulmonary Ultrasound; EoE Spinal Cord Injury Study Day; Airway Clearance Study Day; ECMO Referrers Day; ILM Coaching Course; AHP Research Showcase; ICU Rehabilitation; Cystic Fibrosis Royal Brompton Course (5 days); Smoking Cessation Level 2
- Conferences: EuroELSO (Glasgow 2016); 5th European Conference on Weaning & Rehabilitation in Critically Ill Patients (London 2017); ECFS (Seville 2017); ACPCF (Birmingham 2017); The Respiratory Care Association Congress, organised by the JIVD - AER Association (Lyon 2018); SCTS (Glasgow 2018); EuroELSO (Prague 2018)
- MSc under way: Advanced Physiotherapy x3
- MSc completed: Leadership
External teaching
- Respiratory assessment teaching on post grad ICU nursing module
- Role of physiotherapy following thoracic surgery as part of ARU nursing course
- Proning workshop as part of ARU course
- Sinus disease management and airway clearance at the Scottish CF society (Dunblane)
Posters at conferences
- ECFS (Seville 2017)
- Stroke service, VAD patients and Thoracic Screening Tool at SCTS (Glasgow 2018)
- Single centre audit of rehabilitation with ECMO patients at EuroELSO (Prague 2018)
Published articles
- Perfecting the pathway - Frontline
- ECMO. The physio's role - Frontline
- In-patient physiotherapy for adults on veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – United Kingdom ECMO Physiotherapy Network: A consensus agreement for best practice
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of High-Flow Nasal Oxygen (Optiflow) as Part of an Enhanced Recovery Program After Lung Resection Surgery