HEALTH bosses are considering plans to set up a county-wide respiratory management service to improve the care of people with breathing difficulties.
Breathlessness is the highest single cause of emergency admission to hospital.
But many of these could be avoided by more effective chronic disease management in the community.
As a result, members of Darlington Primary Care Trust (PCT) board will consider a proposal to develop a new Durham and Darlington Respiratory Management Service when they meet on Thursday.
The first stage in setting up such a service would be to appoint a community respiratory nurse team leader who would be involved in training a team in Darlington and South Durham.
The new team would cover hospital admissions and discharges and eventually set up a pulmonary rehabilitation service.
The team leader would be supported by a community respiratory nurse in each area, and community-based clinics run by specially-trained GPs.
The proposal has been backed by County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Darlington Memorial Hospital, Bishop Auckland General Hospital and the University Hospital of North Durham.
Respiratory team serving different parts of the county would need to be multi-disciplinary organisations.
The board and Professional Executive Committee of the PCT are asked to support the initiative and agree to invest £50,000 in getting the project off the ground.
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