Pneumonia places a significant burden on the NHS where it continues to be a leading cause for hospital admissions, many of which are avoidable and for which mortality is high. People who have community-acquired pneumonia often experience uncoordinated services and lack of sharing of relevant information between primary and secondary care services.

RightCare Pneumonia Toolkit

Developed in partnership with the National Clinical Director for Respiratory Disease, Dr Andrew Menzies-Gow, this Pneumonia Toolkit will support systems to understand the priorities in pneumonia care and key actions to take. It provides opportunity to assess and benchmark current systems to find opportunities for improvement. It is produced with reference to an expert group of stakeholders and in line with current NICE guidelines.

Wider consultation has taken place with patient representatives, clinicians, primary care, professional bodies and other key stakeholders.

Commissioners responsible for supporting people with pneumonia for their population should:

• Use the pneumonia toolkit to work across systems ensuring that where possible the following improvement priorities are applied:
  • Primary prevention and risk factors
  • Early detection and accurate diagnosis
  • Reducing inappropriate admissions to secondary care and unexpected mortality
  • Appropriate management including prescribing
  • Discharge and post-disease follow-up
  • Supporting specific patient groups
  • Experience of care
  • Personalised care
• Use the self-assessment questionnaire to baseline your services and assess the extent of your improvement activity. An interactive version is available on RightCare FutureNHS (please note membership is required).

Relevant links to support implementation are included throughout this resource.