£12m health flagship turns away patients

Sufferers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease claim their exercise classes have been dropped because the pioneering unit—which opened in a blaze of publicity three years ago—cannot afford to fund increasing numbers of people needing the service.

It means that COPD patients who have benefited from weekly exercise classes at the Badsley Moor Lane centre for more than two years will now have to find somewhere else.

Patients, whose symptoms include emphysema, chronic bronchitis and chronic asthma, say that they have been left angry and distressed after the shock cutback.

Denise Harrison (64), who has COPD, said: “The exercise sessions are crucial to us.

“The centre is the best in the country. Prince Edward officially opened it and John Prescott visited.

But now we’re being told that because it’s so overrun with cases of people with COPD in Rotherham and the surrounding area they can no longer run our classes.

“We would just like to know why they are not getting enough funding for something as important as this to so many.

“The place is hardly big enough to cover a lot of people and classes only take about 16 at a time.

“Classes have been reduced from several sessions a week to one morning a week for a long time, but now the centre is saying it can’t afford the funding at all.

“We have been told to find classes for ourselves but that would probably mean paying and at our age many of us can’t afford it.”

There may be as many as 8,000 undiagnosed cases of chronic lung disease in Rotherham.

Some 1,600 patients a year have already been diagnosed and receiving treatment at BreathingSpace.

The centre is the country’s leader in treating COPD—a bigger killer than heart disease or cancer.

The unique pilot scheme was developed through a partnership between the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Rotherham Primary Care Trust, with the support of Rotherham Borough Council and Rotherham General Hospital.

The eye-catching three-storey building on the site of the former Badsley Moor Lane Hospital was officially opened by Prince Edward in January 2008.

Changes defended

HEALTH bosses have defended the changes at BreathingSpace, saying they have been made to improve the service.

Gail South, respiratory nurse consultant, said that from April all patients who completed a rehabilitation programme would be given the opportunity to attend a weekly exercise class for six months. 

She added: “Following this, patients will be provided with a comprehensive list of community-based rehab classes which they will be able to access, including the

'Active Always' programme or classes at the Park Rehabilitation Centre.

“Our maintenance classes were initially offered for an unlimited period for patients completing pulmonary rehabilitation, on the understanding that they may become limited if patient numbers increase.  

“As a result some patients, who have accessed our maintenance classes for over two years, are no longer attending and have been given information on community-based programmes. 

“This is in the best interests of the patient as a key aim of the rehab programme is to aid independence so that patients will eventually be able to continue their exercises themselves, either at home or in community-based classes.

"We would like to reassure all our patients and their carers that they are still able to contact us about any aspect and can self-refer to our in-patients service. 

“They are also encouraged to attend the Breathe Easy Group on the third Monday of every month and another social group on Monday afternoons.

"These changes have been made to improve our service for patients and to make sure more people are able to access our rehabilitation programme.”