Physio makes respiratory MISSION possible

^{The MISSION abc team receiving the HSJ award for Innovation in Primary Care}

Called MISSION abc (which stands for modern innovative solutions improving outcomes in asthma, breathlessness and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), the project has won two Healthcare News Journal awards, a patient safety award, and received local recognition.

Instead of waiting for at-risk patients to present at A&E or require unplanned care, the project identifies patients who are likely to benefit from a respiratory assessment via GP registers.

Run by Portsmouth Hospitals Trust and Wessex Academic Health Science Network, MISSION abc was the brainchild of the trust’s lead respiratory consultant, Professor Anoop Chauhan, who recognised the need to bridge the traditional divide between primary and secondary care.

Specialist outpatient respiratory physio, Ruth De Vos, who works with the project, said the MISSION model addresses this by taking a multidisciplinary team of respiratory specialists right to the heart of the patient’s care - in their GP surgery.

Ms De Vos said: ‘Most of the patients would probably reach us at a hospital clinic eventually, but we can now manage the process rather than wait for patients to present at A&E.

‘It means the patients don’t have to come to hospital and they are treated locally in their familiar GP surgery.’

Care closer to home

This approach reduces the length of the assessment pathway, brings care closer to home, and standardises the quality of assessment and management for patients with respiratory disease.

As well as a physiotherapist the team includes doctors, nurses, physiologists, a dietitian, smoking cessation officer and a psychologist.

The team take over a GP surgery for half a day and see at-risk patients on a ‘carousel’ basis so each patient is seen by every specialist.