Hospital's Respiratory Centre Becomes First In South To Offer Drug And Food Allergy Testing, UK

Main Category: Allergy
Also Included In: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 19 Aug 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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The Respiratory Centre at Southampton General Hospital has become the first in the South to offer advanced drug and food allergy testing alongside treatment for complex breathing conditions.

The new service, where staff provide testing for patients who have had significant allergic reactions to medications such as penicillin or local anaesthetics, caps a rapid expansion.

Launched in 2000, the centre primarily focused on effectively treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without admitting patients and caring for them at home in a drive to reduce long hospital stays.

But in recent years, the unit has developed a central role within asthma and allergy care, becoming one of the region's only centres to conduct a weekly immunotherapy clinic for patients with a range of allergies and pollen sensitivities.

It now boasts a recently developed asthma outreach service, where all patients with suspected or confirmed asthma are seen on wards or in the Emergency Department by the asthma specialist nursing team, and specialist therapy for severe asthma.

The unit treats patients from Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, West Sussex, parts of Berkshire and the Isle of Wight and is even the first port of call for the Falkland Islands.

Dr Efrem Eren, consultant clinical immunologist, said: "We are delighted to be able to offer patients across southern England access to an advanced drug and food allergy testing centre.

"The development of this service demonstrates just how far the centre has grown over the last few years, expanding widely to offer a range of care to people with respiratory, allergy and immunology needs."

Notes

1) Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest acute trusts in England and operates at three sites across the city of Southampton. It provides local hospital services to half a million people living in Southampton and SW Hampshire and specialist services including neurosciences, cardiac care and specialist children's services to more than three million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands.

2) Every year more than 8,000 staff at the trust see 450,000 people at outpatient appointments, deal with 95,000 attendances at Accident and Emergency and treat 115,000 inpatients and day patients. Providing these services costs £1.2 million per day.

3) Independent watchdogs from the Healthcare Commission rated Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust as "good" for quality of services and "good" for use of resources in the 2007/08 annual health check.

4) Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust has launched a bid for Foundation Trust status. More information is available from http://www.suht.nhs.uk or from the Foundation Trust office on 023 8079 5199 or email ft@suht.swest.nhs.uk

5) As well as fundraising for ward and department charity projects across SUHT, a major fundraising Red & White Appeal has been launched by Southampton Hospital Charity to raise £2.2 million to create the transplant treatment centre of choice for patients with leukaemia and other blood disorders from Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Dorset, West Sussex and the Channel Islands. For more information, please contact the charity office on 023 8079 8881, email charity@suht.swest.nhs.uk or visit http://www.suht.nhs.uk/charity

6) Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust now has a Twitter page. Twitter is a form of microblogging which enables you to keep up-to-date with the people or organisations in which you are interested in headlines of 140 characters or fewer. Sign up to follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/suht to make sure you know about all our latest news.

Source
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust