• GlaxoSmithKline UK
• Joint Working
• Case studies
• NHS Salford

It soon became clear that pooling GSK’s expertise as the UK’s leading provider of COPD medicines, together with the experience of the Salford Integrated COPD Team in delivering front-line solutions would create a winning combination of skills and resources.

Amanda and the Salford Integrated COPD Team went on to set up a Joint Working venture, which focused on educating the local community about COPD and earlier identification of at-risk groups. This innovative approach has already secured real benefits for patients, healthcare providers and GSK alike.

The Challenge

Salford Primary Care Trust (NHS Salford) serves over 216,000 people. Salford is in the most deprived quintile of the UK and smoking rates are significantly higher than the UK average. The recorded prevalence rate of COPD within NHS Salford is higher than the national average; the actual prevalence may be higher still. Despite the provision of existing services such as an early supported discharge scheme and pulmonary rehabilitation, unscheduled admissions, length of stay and mortality for COPD were also high; resulting in unacceptable burden for patients, their families and health services. In 2006/7 NHS Salford began a programme of work in collaboration with Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust to reduce this burden.

Specific objectives were to:

• Improve COPD management, moving from QOF to NICE standards of care
• Upskill all clinical staff
• Reduce inappropriate hospital admissions and referrals

The Solution

The Salford Integrated COPD Team worked with GSK to develop and implement best-practice COPD management and a tailor-made educational programme. An automated patient audit tool (POINTS)* was introduced to General Practice to optimise the treatment of at-risk and undiagnosed COPD patients - and additional specialist COPD nurses were deployed.

Outcomes of the Integrated COPD Service

Analysis of outcomes is ongoing, but interim data indicates that over a 3 year period:

• Length of hospital stay was reduced from 8.3 to 5.7 days¹
• Unscheduled COPD admissions were reduced by 12% across NHS Salford and continue to decline as compared to national average¹
• NHS Salford expenditure on hospital admissions was reduced by £300,000¹
• The total number of bed days saved was 2,073¹