how long do you have to wait to see a... - Lung Conditions C...
how long do you have to wait to see a c o p d nurse.
You should be referred when you are diagnosed evo. I see my COPD nurse at my surgery every 6 months. But if you worried about anything you can always see a doctor straightaway. x
At my GP's they had a chest specialist on the team, so I was seen by her almost straight away. She's since left and the COPD stuff is being handled by their pharmacist, I don't know if she counts as a COPD nurse.
I guess it depends on what facilities your own Doctor's have available and if you need to be referred to the hospital, or even another practise. My GP's used to be linked with another group and, for a while, we were seen by someone at the other surgery if they could deal with the issue better.
My COPD nurse is based at rthe local hospital and my GP made a referral. I see her regularly, with the added benefit that she can easily discuss any issues with my consultant.
We had to ask to see a COPD nurse through the specialist respiratory team which we also had to ask for a referral to. They came out quite quickly a couple of weeks. We see the practise nurse for respiratory tests once a year and that is about it! If you need to see someone ask your doctor for a referral and keep asking! TAD x
Our surgery has a COPD nurse but because of my husbands breathlessness when he got there she could not do any checks.
He has now had pneumonia three times this year but does not get any help when he leaves hospital, we were on our own, the GP never came to see him only prescribed antibiotics over the 'phone
In desperation I went online to try and find out what help was available for us as we did not know which way to turn. We found that there is a nurse called the Community Matron who comes out to patients in their own home who have illnesses like my husband. They are linked to your GP practice. We rang the GP and asked them why they had not put my husband on the list to see this Matron after all the hospital emergency admissions he had had in the past eight months, and they could not answer us. I asked them to refer him to the Matron and to cut a long story short, the Matron rang us and put my husband on her list and she checks everything, she organised a wheelchair and a walking stick for him. She comes every two weeks to check him over and it is knowing that there is now all this help for him has taken the stress out of our lives.
She said because he couldn't get to the Pulmonary rehab due to his weakness and breathlessness the physio could come to our house and see him there, he is now on oxygen as well.
The GP's have been absolutely useless, they know nothing about COPD and for the patient to have to go to the surgery for tests by the COPD nurse is ridiculous especially in winter as the cold air takes his breath away the moment he opens the door. He never gets seen or rang to see if his medication is still working or not, all he gets is repeat prescriptions. Even when the hospital adds drugs to his prescription, when the chemist picks it up they have forgotten to add it and we have then to ring them to sort it out. How they are paid all this money beats me, I could do better than this load of rubbish.
Now we have the Matron coming it is a godsend.
Which prompts me to remind everyone that they should check their repeat prescriptions to make sure they are getting the right amounts.
Last November the consultant at the hospital increased my steroid inhaler dose and wrote to my GP surgery to advise them. I had 'stock' of this inhaler, as the repeat prescription system just kept issuing them, regardless of actually needing them. I had one in use and two in the cupboard at one time.
A few months later I put in my repeat request and when I picked the items up I noticed that this particular inhaler wasn't there, but I knew I had none 'spare' and the one in use was near the end. I checked the tear-off part of the prescription form and saw that I was not 'due' for one for a couple more weeks. It was only then that I realised the dose had not been altered. I had been getting one every 8 weeks, so it worked out. I really had not noticed until then.
I had to ring the surgery and get them to locate the letter then get the practise pharmacist to change my repeat requirements. I could easily have 'run out' if I had not checked for myself.
Just a little to add to the above. The chemist came today with my husbands prescription, lo and behold the doctor at the surgery had ordered the wrong thing so the wrong item was delivered. I had to ring them up again and they had still not added the medication the specialist wrote them about to his repeat prescriptions so they had to find the specialists letter. They had got the size of the ampoule wrong, had not worked out how many he should have a month, they sent him 4 days supply of the wrong thing instead of 28 days supply. If it wasn't for me keeping track of things, my husband would not know if he was on this earth or Fullers. How do people who live on their own cope with all these mistakes.
Hi Evo1510
Usually a person diagnosed with COPD with have yearly check ups and spirometrys. If there is an exacerbation of symptoms or any other concerns a person can be seen earlier.
Have you just been diagnosed by a doctor? Why don't you give us a call and we can chat about this in more detail.
03000 030 555.
Best Wishes
Jo
I was diagnosed about 5 years ago.but not had any real problems till. A month ago.my partner had painted. The back door with exterior paint .and i walked in to the room and the smell hit me.and i lost ny breath.and was took to hospital. And sent home 4hrs later they said it was a panick attack. And i havent been the same since..theres a lot to my story which. Would take a lot of writeing.i lost my husband. 8yrs 4months ago.he had c.o.p.d. And i nursed him 24/7. Till he died....i will talk to you personaly some time..thank you.
This is the problem, before we had a Community Matron assigned to us my husband could never have the spirometry done because his breathing was so bad. Not once did the nurse refer him to the doctor so he rang himself to speak to the GP who said he would leave him antibiotics and steroids and that is what went on time and time again. My husband said to the GP, why haven't you done a sputum test to check for bacteria, the doctor said 'that's a good idea'. This is what we are up against, no-one gives a damn, when you have been admitted to hospital 3 times in 8 months with pneumonia I would assume that the GP would try and help all he could but no, they did not know he was in hospital even though I wrote to them, they did not know he had come home, even though I rang them. I am my husbands carer and have also been ill and all the doctors say is 'it's your asthma' and change my medication. I asked for a referral to a specialist as I had lost 2.1/2 stones in weight by NOT dieting, the doctors knew this but did nothing, I have seen the specialist and am going for a CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis as the specialist is worried about the weight loss and the cough I have had for a few months. Like I said, the GP knew all this but put it down to Asthma. We have the worst GP's you can imagine.
I am so sorry for you both having such bad service from your GP I am lucky that I have good GP'S but when my mother was alive I had the same problem with her GP they were not interested at all and after many years of illness and hospitilisation it was eventually found she had inoperable lung cancer. I say keep at the GP and if at all possible change your Doctor. You need to have confidence in your GP so good luck and hope all goes well with your scan and things start getting better. All the stress could be part of the reason for your weight loss.
Thank you so much. The oxygen came today so that is one thing less I have to bother about, if we could keep the GP's out of the equation then life would be okay., we are hoping that the Matron will leave him some made out prescriptions for antibiotics to save ringing the doctor up every time.
Respiratory nurse based out of the local hospital works as part of the team with my consultant and GP when trying to keep me stable, infection free and out of hospital. Only a phone call away from seeing my nurse who covers a large area and is often very busy but always there when needed.
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