Hello all, My name is Gareth and I am currently studying Design for Industry in Newcastle. My current design project is focusing on people with COPD and I would like to create a service to help you feel more comfortable to go out in public using your Oxygen.
I would greatly appreciate some feedback from people who relate to this issue, I have some questions about what information is given, when you first receive your Oxygen equipment.
In the North East, BOC are the suppliers of Oxygen but I do not know somethings.
1. What information or training is given to People when they first receive Oxygen from the supplier?
This also includes other Oxygen suppliers across the UK.
could you help answer this question in the best way possible?
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Hi, I had no training of any kind from my respiratory team. My oxygen company (Air Products) delivered my oxygen concentrator and explained the settings and how it worked. The engineer set it for me and said it should not be changed. I was given a safety booklet about the danger of fire, etc. and shown how to change the filter. Later, when my needs changed, I varied between 2lpm and 6lpm depending on the effort I was putting in to something so I needed a larger concentrator. The engineer came out and showed me how to set it and provided the right thickness of tubing. When I used portable oxygen cylinders there was no input from the company apart from delivering them. They also sent messages to the fire brigade to arrange health and safety checks in my home.
My supplier has now changed to Baywater Health. I have had no input from them apart from six-monthly checks of the equipment.
As to going out in public, I was not embarrassed to be an oxygen user but hated the scratched and scruffy cylinders (though they were in a bag) and the unwieldy trolley I used because the cylinders were too heavy for me to carry, which kept folding up on itself and was certainly not fit for purpose. I now have my own portable oxygen concentrator which takes me wherever I need to go.
I was never told how to use it as i was still in hospital when my oxygen was delivered to my home so they gave my daughter the instructions.....I HATE using it outside so would like to ask you what kind of service could you create to make it more comfortable ??
I'm with Air Liquide and they are like @stone says excellent with their product intro,user manuals,next day del or ,4hr emergency response. They also leave a very large oxi cylinder for me in case of a power cut. I have the static home concentrator which follows me around my flat with tubing. Some folk can have it pipped through the walls and have connector switches. So really,a small flat like mine or a large house can all have oxi fitted. Then I have my own one on a trolley like a little black square bag on wheels and also canisters for taking into the car or places I can just about shuffle to.(visit a friend for 2hrs and then it will run out!). I'm trying to take baby steps at regaining my confidence so being in public is not top of my list !
My Respiratory Nurse and Consultant are terrific and I see them 3 or 4 times a year.
I am with Air Liquide as is Stone. They answer the phone immediately and give an excellent service. . I have used them to spend a few days in my daughters caravan in Blackpool. I checked with the park staff first and they delivered the same as I have at home, condenser,spare tank and 4 ambulatory cannisters. When going out I put a cannisters in its bag inside the bag on my 3 wheel walker using a bungee rope to secure it to the frame. I am not the least bit embarrassed and for every person who stares there are so many who are happy to open shop doors or offer to help pack shopping etc.
I am also with Air Liquid as some of the others are, I have found them very good, I was in hospital when it was initially set up but the delivery man instructed my friend on what to do. I got the instruction booklet and a fireman come round and pointed out the dangers and also fit additional smoke alarms all for nothing. I have booked them to install a concentrator in a hotel in Southport for next Saturday night the booking was straight forward but as they say, 'the proof of the pudding etc' I find Air Liquid excellent.
Sadly had to call my Southport visit off through having problems this week, I'm on 8 steroids a day at the moment and they will boost me up should have started earlier with them. Hope that you are keeping well at the moment.
Sorry to hear you have had to cancel. I too don't start taking the steroids till quite late but always feel so much better within a day or too. Hope you soon feel better and can rearrange soon. I know it will do you good.
When my mum was put on oxygen 18 hours a day, there was no training just a few instructions like not smoking in the house. She had a concentrator machine with miles of tubing. She kept forgetting about it and getting caught up. We had a back up tank but never needed it. This was a while ago and reading the other replies it looks like things have improved a lot. Good luck with the project.
Kent Oxygen suppliers are Dolby Vivisol. Marks out of 10, 6 only.
They supply what is on the prescription for your need. If the equipment is new to the patient, the engineer bringing will give instruction about the apparatus. 3/4 booklets are left for you to read with contact numbers for any eventuality. & a six monthly check on equipment maybe! Other than that it's up to the patient!!
Many patients have the connection of a respiratory nurse/ physio from their GP surgery or throu a respiratory rehabilitation course within their area. Nurses/ physio' s , I believe, need more training on the O2 equipment , but l'm sure that differs from area to area
When I go to my daughters in Derbyshire it is Airliquide that supply and they are the tops. If there has ever been a quietly they have brought backup and are so accommodating. Brilliant service. Marks out of 10, a full 10 from my experience.
Hi Gareth, thinking about design! A concept that was inconspicuous, that didn't look like you were the hunch back of notre, obviously a backpack that didn't leak, as O2 tanks bleed H2O occasionally and always at the most inappropriate time.
At this time I believe our backpack tanks come from America, that includes the bags etc.
This seems to me a brilliant project. And going forward if you could get a backer very lucrative. Good luck. Will follow
COPD is not the only lung condition people have that requires oxygen! I have sarcoidosis and other people have pulmonary fibrosis, bronchiectasis and other lung conditions.
I need oxygen 4Litres a min when moving around anf 2L a min when sitting and in bed.
My supplier in South Buckinghamshire is Dolby Vivisol and I am pleased with the telephone ordering service and the delivery person who is very helpful if I have a question.
I am very comfortable when going out with my oxygen. I find people are very kind and helpful.
When I go out I use an ordinary shopping trolley to carry my oxygen cylinder, a spare and my handbag.
My oxygen nurse visits me once a year.
I have two portable liquid oxygen cylinders that I use when going out. I fill them from a largish tank of liquid oxygen in the garage which is changed every three weeks or so when the oxygen runs out.
As you are a design student this is a thought to consider. I also have a static oxygen concentrator that I use at home and when sleeping. It would be so helpful if someone designed a concentrator with a remote control that could turn down the litres a minute (in my case from 4L a min to 2L a min) and turn it off when not needed when sitting still. I cannot use a remote controlled electric socket as if the electric is turned off while the machine is still turned on the machine bleeps! As the concentrator makes a bit of noise I keep it in the room next to where I am sitting - the oxygen tubing is very long!
Christine, I totally agree about the remote control. My concentrator lives under the stairs and my oxygen needs vary between 2 and 6 litres. At present I have to manage from downstairs to upstairs without increasing the oxygen - because otherwise it would be too high once I got there, and then there is getting downstairs the next morning without being able to turn up first. No, moving the concentrator upstairs would not help as it would present the same problems in reverse and I would still have to tackle the stairs with insufficient oxygen. I have often told my nurse that a remote control is exactly what I need and I am sure it would make an inventor millions!
Stone, a friend found the piped system meant she had to use the stairs without oxygen when moving between upstairs and downstairs outlets, and of course it did not help with adjusting the oxygen levels from another room/floor.
I need only 2litres a min when I sleep so I turn down my concentrator before I go upstairs, take the long tubing with me but put on my portable oxygen to go upstairs and have that on 4litres a minute, turn it off when in bed and put on the long tubing that has been at 2litres a minute. Just an idea.
I am also with Air liquide who are very helpful. I like a few of my friends are unhappy at many people staring if we have oygen cylinders in a trolley. I now carry mine with a jumper covering it. I no longer use the trolly
thank you very much for all your replies, they were all very helpful. I have to hand in my university project on thursday and I feel it has went very well, could not have done it without your help.
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