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Working for Respiratory Medicine

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Respiratory Medicine covers many areas. We look after patients with:

• lung cancer
• asthma
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• interstitial lung diseases
• bronchiectasis
• cystic fibrosis
• tuberculosis
• pleural diseases
• pulmonary vascular disease
• sleep apnoea and related disorders.

Such patients usually suffer from:

• breathlessness
• cough
• coughing up blood (haemoptysis)
• chest pain
• in the case of sleep apnoea, excessive daytime sleepiness.

There are supporting specialist nurses for lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, sleep apnoea and pleural disease, and two high-dependency inpatient beds.

Main services

• General respiratory outpatient consultations
• Inpatient beds plus two high-dependency beds
• Cystic fibrosis unit
• Bronchoscopy
  The patient is sedated and a thin tube is passed through the mouth or nose, down the throat and into the airways of the lungs to examine the lungs and to take a sample of cells.
• Sleep unit:
  • four sleep laboratories
  • nasal CPAP service
    (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, a type of breathing apparatus) 
  • non-invasive ventilation service
• Pulmonary rehabilitation programme
• Pleural diseases unit
• Thoracoscopy
  Under a general anaesthetic, a tube is passed into the chest through small cuts. The doctor can look inside the chest and take tissue and fluid samples for tests.
• Lung function laboratory
• Respiratory Clinical Trials Unit

Respiratory medicine is mainly based at the Churchill Hospital| (Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine, or Osler Chest Unit), and there is also a service at the Horton General Hospital| in Banbury.

Services are best contacted via the secretaries to the consultants according to their area of interest.