PhysioUpdate 21st March 2023

Health coaching has the potential to reduce the unprecedented pressures facing primary care services, physiotherapist Richard Pell told delegates attending a podcast broadcast by Connect Health on 1 March.

Mr Pell, campaign director of Flippin’ Pain, Connect Health, introduced the session by referring to recent British Medical Association data that highlighted the challenges facing primary care – such as a fall in GP numbers, and recruitment and retention issues.

‘There is now the equivalent of 2,000-plus fewer qualified full-time GPs compared to 2015, despite practices delivering 29.6 million appointments in January alone – with seven in 10 of those being face-to-face.’

Physiotherapists do not need to treat patients with pneumonia using airway clearance techniques (ACTs) as a matter of routine, according to guidance published today (6 March) by the British Thoracic Society (BTS).

A section in the publication dealing with respiratory physiotherapy suggests that, in most cases of aspiration pneumonia (AP), lung consolidation exists without excess secretions. ‘In this situation, there is no evidence that respiratory physiotherapy is of benefit,’ it notes.

Existing BTS guidelines state that patients with pneumonia should not be treated routinely with ACTs, according to the publication, which is titled ‘The BTS clinical statement on aspiration pneumonia’.

However, the statement suggests that respiratory physiotherapy should be initiated ‘when secretions are present clinically’, or ‘when there is radiological evidence of atelectasis’. The initial aims are to clear secretions resulting from aspiration and to re-expand areas of atelectasis, in the expectation of improving oxygenation, it notes.