The asthma and allergy team, led by Dr Andrew Menzies-Gow, provides an immediately accessible local service for asthma and related problems. Our emphasis is on accurate diagnosis and avoidance, environmental control measures where appropriate, as well as pharmacotherapy.

Conditions

Asthma, allergy, occupational lung disease and nose clinic services.

Information for patients

Clinical team

• Seven consultants
• Two specialist registrars
• One SHO
• Three clinical nurse specialists
• One specialist dietitian

Special expertise

• Allergic asthma

• Difficult asthma

• Corticosteroid resistant asthma

• Occupational asthma

• Identification of cause of asthma

• Self-management plans for asthma

• Anaphylaxis

• Drug allergy

• General allergy

• Rhinitis and other nasal problems (medical and surgical)

• Cough (differential diagnosis)

• Immunotherapy (bee and wasp allergy, difficult hay fever)

In-patient services

• High dependency unit for acute asthma admissions

• Intensive care unit for specialist / ventilatory support

• Occupational type bronchial challence

• Day ward diagnostic services for:

  • defined assessment and investigation protocol for "difficult asthma"

  • bronchodilator and reversibility studies

  • teaching: home care of nebulisers, subcutaneous bronchodilator infusion etc

  • allergy diagnosis (aeroallergens, food allergy, anaesthetics, etc)

  • immunotherapy (desensitisation) service

  • nasal studies (rhinomanometry, nasal challenge, flexible and rigid endoscopy, diagnostic biopsy)

  • fibre optic bronchoscopy

Out-patient services

• Two specialist allergy clinics

• One specialist paediatric allergy clinic

• Ten specialist asthma clinics each week

• Specialist nose clinic

Information for doctors

Research, development and teaching

Clinicians and scientists involved in asthma care and research at the hospital have formed the Asthma and Allergy Research group. Major on-going areas of research include:

• Basic research into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of asthma and rhinitis

• Identification of novel allergic/occupational causes and development of strategies for avoidance/ environmental control

• Allergy vaccination (wasp/bee venom and severe hayfever)
• Development of new treatments including pharmacotherapy and immunosuppressive therapy
• Clinical and epidemiological studies in the community and workplace including the case for GP asthma clinics
• Investigation of allergy to foods, preservatives, drugs, anaesthetic agents

The team organises several major annual courses including pharmacology of asthma, basic clinical allergy, occupational lung disease, respiratory updates for general practitioners and, in addition, many specialist courses.

The team has also been closely involved in the development of national and international guidelines for asthma prevention and management, and the treatment of hayfever, rhinitis and the role of allergen immunotherapy. We frequently give local and national seminars for general practitioners in asthma and allergy practice and will attend local GP Surgeries and advise or provide individual support for setting up asthma clinics in general practice.

Meet the asthma teamRead about patient and public involvement in our asthma research