Hi.
Does anyone know of or have any experience of tertiary asthma centres in the North West (ish) of England? Where are they?
I’ve got non allergic and non eosinophilic asthma so my consultants struggling to decide what to do with me.
Any help would be appreciated
Thank you
Hi - same here with the non-allergic/non-eosinophilic asthma, never fun as it seems much less well understood.
I'm not in the north-west myself but there's a tertiary asthma centre at Wythenshawe hospital in Manchester: mft.nhs.uk/wythenshawe/serv....
There also seems to be one in Newcastle (I know that's north-east but in case it's doable travelwise). In the Midlands there's Heartlands in Birmingham and possibly one in Nottingham; Leicester also has some expertise there but not sure if it's tertiary or too far for you.
As someone with similar asthma who runs into a lot of eosinophil-focused specialists, I would advise doing a bit of research on the consultants in these centres and see if any have an interest in non-eos/non-allergic asthma; my London centre barely acknowledges we exist! Sometimes you can tell (eg mine says up front in his profile on the hospital clinic site that he's focused on eosinophilic disease, but I didn't know quite how much he would focus before I saw him - I would maybe choose differently if I were doing this again). However, sometimes you need to do a bit of googling of names and maybe looking at the kind of stuff they research and publish to get an idea, if they do research. I notice Wythenshawe separates clinical leads from research leads - I wonder if that works out better, as I am wary of doctors who are very research-focused these days; they can forget what reality is like for us I find.
If you do find someone promising and you're ok to travel a bit that may be worth it - you can usually keep seeing your local specialists too if you want to, and you probably will if you get hospital admissions as those will be in your local presumably. Sometimes people like their local specialists and keep seeing them, but also see the tertiary centre every so often, and the tertiary centre is often the one to start biologics if someone is eligible (hang in there, there is a new one hopefully coming in the next couple of years which isn't just eosinophil-focused!)
Hope this helps.
That’s so helpful, thank you so much!
Been under north Manchester hospital was going to start biologics there but due to travel. I was referred to Preston royal hospital severe asthma clinic. The lead consultant is doctor vyas and I think they deal with a lot of the unusual cases
Not been to tertiary and like you I’m non esophillic non allergic. My lungs of course have started behaving since finally getting through the wait to be seen. My consultant is an asthma specialist working in secondary care. From my googling of him he has done lots of research and works closely with the centre in Manchester. I’ve found him very reassuring in person.
Hi! Thank you for that. I’m glad to here your lungs are behaving better, would you mind sharing what’s helped you get to this point? With non eosinophilic and non allergic I know there aren’t as many options.
Thank you 
I think with me it was moving from the area I was living in- they were deconstructing an A road and breaking down massive pillars of concrete in the area. There has been nothing else new added. My lungs have improved so much that now asthma is being queried based on my last lung function tests. Covid is currently kicking my arse though 🤣
From the guidelines of the biologics they sometimes will provide them if things remain unstable with Al other options being considered.
Did your consultant explore co-morbidities? My guy referred me for what feels like every test under the sun including barium meal and CT. Still waiting on ENT appointment which I really need as post nasal drip is a big problem for me and is likely what kicks things off.
The last time I saw my consultant they said they were pretty sure I’ve not got any other co-morbidities. I’ve had quite a few tests, I had a CT scan that just showed some air trapping which is consistent with asthma and my spirometry is also consistent with asthma. I don’t have any upper airway/throat tightening that they would expect with vocal chord dysfunction and things like that. Just waiting now to hear from the consultant about what the plan is
Poor care at GP practice
Another “tool” for emergency care!
Equalising care
