National Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) awareness week, which took place from 18 to 26 June this year, has presented a great opportunity to raise awareness of some of the priorities that have been identified by the ICB's service leads across NCL for 2024-25.

Priorities are

• understanding barriers to uptake (referral) and completion (engagement) across all services. These are national issues, but by looking from an NCL perspective, the ICB can  use learning to review processes and service delivery models 
• reducing inappropriate/incomplete referrals (as high as 18% of all referrals in one NCL borough). A confirmed respiratory diagnosis is essential. This also ensures treatment is optimised before the patient starts PR. Referral criteria are documented on all referral forms. PR teams are always happy to discuss queries and signpost to further information and training  
• widening out referral criteria which should support referral from marginalised groups
• services will be evaluating different delivery models for vulnerable / inclusion groups in 2024-25 and are using learning and experience from pilots from existing HI work.