Clean air in Port Talbot

Sara Thomas has been doing some interesting work on a pilot scheme in Port Talbot, monitoring the air quality. They have sensors in the Margam area which register the very fine particles in the air which are invisible. We can all see when there is dust about but these invisible particles are the ones with the potential to get deep into our lungs, causing harmful irritation to those who already have lung conditions such as COPD or asthma and could cause harm to healthy lungs too.

I read an article today which indicates that maybe the presence of these microscopic particles can affect thinking and reaction times, especially in older people.

But let's not give Port Talbot and it's industries a bad name. Some of this pollution comes from the motorway and much of it comes from the Sahara Desert. The monitors have shown peak readings when the winds have been blowing the dust over us.

Well done Sara and her team and keep up the good work of making sure that our air is clean but at the same time supporting local industry and transport which are essential for jobs in the area.

We all had the chance to go through the "Changing for the better" book outlining the plans for change in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. We have completed and returned the questionnaire emphasising the need to extend the pulmonary rehab program to reach more people than it does now - five/six programmes a year with eight people in each course is maximum forty eight patients a year, which is a mere drop in the ocean when compared to the number of people in the area who are living with a lung condition. We all know that the lessons learned in Pulmonary Rehab are vital in helping keep us out of hospital and access to rehab is a part of NICE recommendations.

World COPD Day - 14th November



 

Many people don't know what COPD is, and even if they have heard of it they don't know what it means :-



• Chronic - it won't go away
• Obstructive - airways are blocked
• Pulmonary - to do with the lungs
• Disease - it's an illness

Let's hope that we can find more of those "Missing Millions" who have COPD but are yet to be diagnosed. Early diagnosis and early treatment are essential for the best outcomes for COPD patients.

This is our information board in the Baglan Medical Resource Centre - lots of information about COPD, living with it, caring for someone with it,anxiety about it, depression because of it, end of life questions, support from British Lung Foundation and much more useful stuff.

So, if you are any three of these

• breathless
• coughing more than everyone else
• a smoker or ex smoker
• producing phlegm

go and see your pharmacist or GP for a simple lung test - it doesn't hurt, all you do is blow into a tube.

From Monday 12th November, a health campaign will launch across Wales which encourages people to talk to their pharmacist if they are suffering with a persistent cough.

Brian from Swansea and Only Men Aloud launched the "Love Your Lungs" campaign in Cardiff

Did they let you sing ?

Meet the Patients

Today we spent two hours at the Welsh Assembly, chatting to our Assembly members and asking for their support on the major issues in lung health today. The main one being adequate provision of pulmonary rehab across Wales as recommended in NICE guidelines. Every patient with a lung condition, who would benefit from receiving pulmonary rehab (not all do) should have easy access to it. We all know that rehab educates people and is enabling, helping them to lead more active lives and, most importantly, keeping them out of hospital (rehab costs around £450 per person to deliver and a week in hospital costs around £2,500 - the figures speak for themselves)

Also we want to improve Sleep Apnoea services across Wales. Sleep Apnoea can be treated with a CPAP machine or often with a lifestyle change - simple measures can change the lives of sufferers.

Rebecca Evans, Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales, listened carefully while we asked her about provision for Sleep Apnoea services in her area. She said she would ask the minister and she has emailed me today with a reply from  Leslie Griffiths saying that all the Health Boards had been advised of the minimum accepted standards in February 2011. Now we need to check that these standards are being met.

We want the Assembly to press ahead to protect children in cars from cigarette smoke. They can't say "Put the fag out please !" so we must say that for them. After all we can't smoke in pubs, so drinkers are protected, in the workplace, in schools, in hospitals - do I need to say more ? We must protect our children.

 

 

Read all about it !!

The latest BLF Wales Newsletter is now available.
Click here Download your Wales Newsletter to read for yourself.

It's on the wall !

Doesn't our board look lovely now it's in situ in the cardio /respiratory unit in Neath Port Talbot Hospital ? All our British Lung Foundation information and support is now easily available to all patients using this clinic. We put stickers on everything we donate so that the people who use them know that our Breathe Easy group is working on their behalf.

 

A leaflet board for Neath Port Talbot Hospital

How nice it is, after raising all that money earlier in the year with our abseil event, donations, and sales, to be able to use it to everyones benefit. Last month we were able to give a large cheque to British Lung Foundation Wales and today we were able to purchase a British Lung Foundatio leaflet board and present it to Hannah Howard, our oxygen nurse. Hannah says it will be displayed in the waiting room in the Lung Function and Oxygen Assessment area in the hospital. We hope many people will make use of it, get information on their lung condition, make contact through the helpline - 03000 030 555 and come along to join us in Breathe Easy.

Hannah was delighted and said she was sure that both patients and staff will benefit from it being there.

Life on the Mary Rose

Phil Bowen gave us a great insight into life on the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's flagship which sank in the Solent in 1545 and was recovered, in a widely watched televised event, in 1982. Life must have been pretty grim aboard, especially during the many battles she fought.
Phil, a retired headteacher, was just the kind of history teacher I would have liked. He made the subject fun. We ended with a test and were rewarded with sweeties.
We have asked him to come back next year to tell us about Carisbrook Casle and Osbourne House.

We also discussed how our local service for people with COPD has been much depleted lately and ways we can campaign and work along with the health authority to get it back to what it once was - home visits, early discharge scheme and a pulmonary rehab programme which helps all of us with COPD to keep well and out of hospital. It's in all our interest to help get this service up and running at full strength again.