South West respiratory clinic to give asthma and COPD sufferers help to relieve hospital pressure

For Liz Arnold, being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) led to major life changes. After unknowingly living with the condition, the 61-year-old was finally diagnosed in January 2023 and had to stop her work at a mine site due to her difficulty breathing. “I’m now very limited as to what I can do physically,” Ms Arnold said. “I can’t lift things and walk very far, I can’t talk and walk at the same time, I basically had to give up my job because I can’t pass a medical.” She is now one of the first patients to have attended St John of God Hospital’s new respiratory hub. People in Ms Arnold’s position are those the Australia-first regional hub is designed to keep out of hospital by focusing on education to give patients a greater understanding of their condition. Asthma WA chief executive Anne Hallam states there is a disproportionately high level of people living with asthma and COPD in regional WA, with 39 per cent of hospitalisations due a respiratory condition occurring outside of Perth. Ms Hallam said the idea of the clinic was centred around education to empower people with the condition to have more knowledge of their own care. “One in four over the age of 60 will have COPD and one in nine West Australians will have asthma,” she said. “We know that particularly for an older demographic the tyranny of distance will stop them accessing health care. “With COPD in particular, what we see a lot of is continual flare-ups, so it’s not under control, it’s not managed and every two or three months there’ll be something that will cause a flare up . . . and then their way of responding to that is to go to the hospital.” The South West was chosen in part due to its high rate of hospital presentations for respiratory conditions. Someone who has seen the stress this puts on hospitals is Dr Matt Pettit, who has worked as a pharmacist and at the Bunbury Regional Hospital. He is now the project coordinator of the hub and said giving patients better support before the hospitalisation stage will greatly reduce the stress on the system. “The impact is massive because once they present once they generally present multiple times so it’s not just going to present as a single presentation,” he said. “Quite frequently they’ll need admission to hospital so obviously that creates bed pressure. “Ultimately if we can intervene early and educate our patients in ideal self management hopefully they can be managed through primary care, through their GP and their local providers without hopefully needing them to go into hospital.” The clinic is open on Mondays and Tuesdays and is free of charge with a referral from a GP or by self referral through Asthma WA’s website or phone number. After attending the clinic for several months, Ms Arnold has a simple message for others facing breathing issues. “Get it checked, don’t leave it like I did . . . if you start struggling for breath, get it tested,” she said.