Respiratory

Our Vision

A greener, fairer Greater Manchester where fewer people develop respiratory disease and more people live well with their condition.

 

Who are we?

We are a clinically-led network bringing together patients, carers, clinicians, commissioners and system partners to improve respiratory health and care across Greater Manchester.

The Network is responsible for supporting delivery of the NHS Greater Manchester respiratory strategy, working across organisations to reduce variation, improve outcomes and tackle health inequalities.

Clinical leadership is at the heart of what we do and Dr Jennifer Hoyle (consultant in respiratory medicine), Dr Murugesan Raja (GP primary care advisor) and Sue Mason (clinical project lead) advocate for our system improvement and innovations, supported by a multidisciplinary network of clinicians, programme leads and system partners.

 

What are our aims?

Our ambition is to improve respiratory health across Greater Manchester by shifting from reactive, hospital-based care to proactive, community-based care, aligned to the NHS Greater Manchester respiratory strategy.

We focus on:

  • Prevention and early intervention
    Reducing smoking, improving vaccination uptake and identifying disease earlier
  • Earlier diagnosis and improved access to diagnostics
    Expanding access to quality-assured spirometry and other respiratory diagnostics
  • Improving outcomes and patient experience
    Supporting personalised care, education and self-management
  • Reducing avoidable hospital admissions
    Strengthening community pathways and supporting care closer to home
  • Reducing inequalities
    Targeting support to communities with the highest burden of respiratory disease

These aims support NHS GM’s ambition to reduce respiratory disease prevalence and improve outcomes across all communities.

 

 

How do we do it?

We work across the system to drive improvement through:

  • Clinical leadership and system collaboration
    Bringing together primary care, community, acute and specialist services to design and deliver consistent pathways
  • Developing Greater Manchester-wide pathways and standards
    Including COPD, asthma, pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and interstitial lung disease (ILD), ensuring more consistent care across all localities
  • Using data and insight to drive improvement
    Supporting the development of the Greater Manchester respiratory dashboard to identify variation and target action
  • Testing and scaling innovation
    Delivering pilot programmes and adopting evidence-based models of care
  • Supporting implementation at scale
    Working with localities and providers to embed pathways and improve access and outcomes

 

Our impact

The Respiratory Network is delivering measurable improvements in access, outcomes and system performance across Greater Manchester.

 

Improving pathways and access

  • Delivery of a Greater Manchester-wide chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pathway and toolkit, supporting consistent care and improved outcomes for a population of approximately 75,000 patients
  • Redesign of interstitial lung disease pathways, improving access to specialist care and reducing variation across the system
  • Strengthening of pulmonary rehabilitation services, including development of Greater Manchester standards and a peer review model

Nationally recognised innovation

  • Supporting the nationally funded Respiratory Transformation Programme pilot in Manchester, focused on earlier diagnosis and community-based care
  • More than 17,600 patients identified as rising risk, with more than 1,500 referred for diagnostic testing
  • Introduction of rapid, community-based spirometry access, reducing time to diagnosis to an average of around three weeks
  • Improved integration between primary and secondary care, and increased patient confidence in managing their condition

Prevention and population health

  • Strong focus on prevention, vaccination and self-management, supporting earlier intervention and reduced deterioration
  • Targeted work to improve outcomes in deprived and high-risk populations, aligned to Core20PLUS5 principles

System transformation

  • Supporting a shift towards proactive, community-based care, reducing reliance on hospital services
  • Developing data infrastructure to enable population health management and continuous improvement

 

How can I get involved?

Our Patients, Carers and Public Advisory Group plays an important role in ensuring services reflect lived experience and meet the needs of our communities and our respiratory programme team will be happy to discuss opportunities for you to actively engage with our work programme.

Please contact our corporate office at england.gmec-scn@nhs.net or any of our programme team to find out how you can help:

We actively involve patients, carers and the public in shaping our work.