Six years old today.

Breathe Easy Neath Valley was six years old today so we celebrated in style with yummy cake which was enjoyed by everyone. Those of us using oxygen appreciated that the candles were knitted and the flames were glittery paper - so no danger of a conflagration with all the extra oxygen in the room.




Claire Hurlin and her team came over from Carmarthen to show us the Tele Health equipment. This is being used in a trial in and around Carmarthen and helps to keep regular contact between patient and health professional and enables regular monitoring of the condition. This has prevented unnecessary hospital admissions and reassures patients. It's easy to use and puts you in touch with a specialist doctor/nurse on a regular daily basis, which would be impossible with home visits. This looks like a good way forward.


We had a long chat with Andy Phillips and Craig from ABMu about patient records. There has been concern that when we are admitted to hospital, we often arrive at A and E and don't always get the right treatment straight away, because there is no record of our past history of lung attacks (exacerbations) and rate of infection recurrence. There were other issues we discussed as well such as people who are CO² retentive not being given too much oxygen by ambulance crews and co-morbidities. It's no use treating one condition and making another worse. It is being suggested that we take an A4 sheet of paper, with all our details, along with our medication if, or when, we are admitted to hospital. This sounds like a good idea because, at the moment, NHS computers, in different parts of the service, don't speak to each other - we have been assured that this is being worked on.


All these visitors to the group today proved to be good recruiting ground for the abseil at Easter - three signed up today and many application forms taken home to be completed and returned later.