Expansion hope for homeless respiratory clinic

Prof Dominick Shaw wants to roll out the initiative across the East Midlands

Officials behind a clinic set up to treat rough sleepers with serious lung conditions in Nottingham hope the initiative could be expanded to other parts of the region.

Staff from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) volunteer once a month to diagnose and help patients who would otherwise struggle to access treatment.

The clinic is held at the Nottingham Recovery Network Wellbeing Hub, with patients identified by outreach workers from homelessness charity Framework.

Prof Dominick Shaw, who leads the initiative, said: "This could be scaled up across the East Midlands."

"It really shocked me to find out that the people in the UK today with the worst mortality are rough sleepers," he added.

"Their average age of death is in their mid-40s.

"One of the causes was lung disease, and most of those diseases are preventable.

"Living [outside], if it is wet and damp, there is a higher risk of chest infection or pneumonia, as well as emphysema from smoking and asthma."

The service, which is the first of its kind in the UK, was launched in partnership with NUH, Framework, CityCare and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The Framework outreach teams identify rough sleepers prior to the clinic sessions.

Apollos Clifton-Brown, Framework's director of health and social care, said: "The drop-in respiratory clinic is changing and saving the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in Nottingham."

Apollos Clifton-Brown described the clinic as life-saving

Former barber Jason Sampson, 47, who was treated for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at the clinic, said: "I just feel like I've always got help here. I'd probably be in a coffin now if it wasn't for this place.

"My breathing has been loads better, and I'm on the right medication.

"Because I've been on the streets for so long and not been registered to a doctors or anything like that, I didn't realise I was ill."

Rough sleeper Ross Nixon, 46, has also been treated at the clinic and has been diagnosed with severe asthma.

He has been homeless for three years and credits the service with keeping him alive.

He said: "They prolong your life, I'd have probably been dead now if it weren't for people like these."

"Even for somebody who has got no family or no one who cares about them, they can come to a service like this and you can see people actually care."

Jason has been treated for COPD at the clinic and says it has improved his breathing

The team behind the initiative wants to roll out the clinic to other areas and believes it will help reduce the impact on emergency departments.

Prof Shaw, who is also a professor of respiratory medicine, said he is currently in talks to roll the scheme out to Leicester, Derby and Mansfield.

He said: "To get the service commissioned for a small amount of money to have a massive impact on ED attendances and reduce the length of stays in hospital would be the dream."