Over the last year, the Patients’ Fund has funded some exciting new projects that our staff believe will truly enhance the lives of patients treated at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.

The Patients’ Fund accepts applications from staff members across both hospitals for projects which haven’t been funded by the NHS because they aren’t deemed ‘essential’. However, after listening to our staff and our patients, we know that these can make all the difference to patient wellbeing, care and recovery.

The Lungs at Work animation was one of these special projects. The idea was originally proposed to us by Clinical Nurse, Julie Cannon from the occupational & environmental medicine department for Lungs at Work. Julie and team believed the animation would help to demonstrate the optimal way to do a lung function test or spirometry especially for those who spoke little or no English.

Spirometry is a historically tricky respiratory test which requires a patient’s co-ordination and control to complete and can be difficult to explain if English is not your first language. As the patient plays such an active role in the test, it’s very important for them to understand it so that the results are valid.

The animation has since been created and uploaded to the Lungs at Work website and YouTube channel for anyone to view and use. This means that our Charity, alongside Lungs at Work has been able to help not only patients at our hospitals, but people with lung conditions across the country.

The video was also received very well by patients who found it easy to understand and helped them feel less stressed about the procedure. Julie reported back to us that one patient said, “It’s really helpful, pictures speak a thousand words”.

Without the help of our incredible supporters we wouldn’t have been able to fund this, or many other, of the excellent ideas that are proposed to us. Thank you for your support!

You can view the entire Lungs at Work animation on Spirometry below: