Heartbeat: Patients breathing easy after relocation of respiratory hub

January 10, 2020

Our respiratory service was recently transformed with the development of a respiratory inpatient hub which moved all inpatient respiratory care under one roof at City Hospital on wards D15 and D17.

The development of the respiratory hub at City Hospital has now meant that patients who have a respiratory condition that is expected to result in an inpatient stay longer than two days will stay within the newly formed respiratory hub.

Outpatient clinic appointments remain running at both Sandwell and City Hospitals with specialist consultants and the respiratory team continuing to see patients who are admitted through to the assessment units or wards at Sandwell Hospital.

Sharing his thoughts on the development of the new hub, Respiratory Consultant Dr Arvind Rajasekaran said: “The development of the new respiratory hub at City means that our respiratory beds are now together on one site so for patients who need to stay in hospital, they will be able to be seen more quickly and by the most appropriate clinician. Reducing delays in treatment and having specialists on hand will inevitably improve patient outcomes and also reduce length of stay.”

“Reconfiguration of services of such a scale required careful planning and over the past several months we engaged and worked with several teams both within and outside of our organisation.

This is a time to reflect on this hard work and acknowledge the impact of all of the colleagues who have made this possible.

I would like the specifically thank the patient forums for their suggestions and my clinical colleagues who have changed their working patterns to make this a reality.

Special thanks are also due to the Emergency Department team, Estates, West Midlands Ambulance Service, IT and the Respiratory Hub project team.”