Work Plan for 2013

ACPRC Workplan 2013

Every year the ACPRC committee meets to review the progress of the previous year and set the workplan for the coming year. The review of the previous year will be presented in the annual report at the on-line AGM in April 2013.

The following objectives were agreed at the ACPRC awayday for January to December 2013

• Deliver ACPRC conference 2013 and commence planning for 2015
• Review and development of operational systems (3 year plan to December 2014)
• Undertake initial scoping for Emergency Respiratory Physiotherapy service project and produce position statement
• Develop collaborations with CSP Cardiorespiratory Alliance and other Professional Networks
• Produce four more leaflets to support BTS/ACPRC 2009 Guideline
• Collaborate with CSP on clinical outcomes project

Deliver ACPRC conference 2013 and commence planning for 2015

As PRO for the ACPRC, Lynn McDonnell leads on this objective, supported by the whole committee.

• Deliver 2013 Conference

The 2013 conference will be held at the Leicester Hilton, on 19-20 April. The theme for the conference is ‘new and progressing challenges’ in respiratory physiotherapy. More information is available on the ACPRC website – we look forward to seeing you there.

• Commence planning for 2015 conference

ACPRC has had preliminary discussions with the International Confederation of Cardiorespiratory Physical Therapy (ICCrPT – the cardio-respiratory sub-group of WCPT) about the potential to run a joint conference between ACPRC and ICCrPT. This may be possible for the 2015 conference, however 2015 will be a WCPT conference year, so this opportunity may not be possible this time.

Planning for the 2015 conference will commence at the September ACPRC committee meeting, where the conference theme will be determined and ideas for an initial programme will be drafted. If you have any suggestions for the conference theme for 2015, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Review and development of operational systems

At the 2012 awayday the committee set itself a three year task to improve and update the ACPRC website and the way we manage membership processes, to make the process more efficient and easier for members to use. This objective is being led by Catherine Thompson, Lizzie Flude and Matt Cox. This year is the second year of the work and we aim to:

• Produce specification for future website development
• Identify potential service providers and obtain quotations
• Commission the development work

We aim to have the work completed by December 2014.

Undertake initial scoping for Emergency Respiratory Physiotherapy service project and produce position statement

Over the past year to 18 months ACPRC has received many requests for advice and support from members who are struggling to maintain an on-call / out of hours respiratory physiotherapy service. There has also been much debate on iCSP about this subject, but there is little guidance to help physiotherapy managers or respiratory physiotherapists. We want to do something to support members with this challenge, but realise that this may require a larger piece of work that takes more than one year to complete.

• Produce ACPRC Position statement on the provision of Emergency Respiratory Physiotherapy services

This will be led by Catherine Thompson, Eleanor Main and David McWilliams, with support from the whole committee. We will develop a draft position statement which will be put out to consultation with ACPRC members and other stakeholders from the wider respiratory and physiotherapy community.

• Liaise with CSP re: support for further development of the project

We will discuss our concerns over emergency respiratory physiotherapy services with CSP and scope out any potential for developing this into a larger piece of work.

• Produce a case study resource for members

We will collate examples of areas where services have stopped, examples of new ways of working to deliver emergency respiratory physiotherapy services and examples of training approaches for maintaining staff competency. This will be coordinated by Harriet Shannon, the ACPRC Research Officer.

Develop collaborations with CSP Cardiorespiratory Alliance and other Professional Networks

As part of the professional network recognition process we made a commitment to work more closely with the other professional networks in our alliance (ACPICR and ACPCF). This year we aim to develop two specific areas:

• Collaboration with AGILE to produce cardiorespiratory exercise guidance
• Collaboration with CSP Cardiorespiratory Alliance
  • Potential to run a joint Exercise Physiology course
  • To explore the options for having more Medical devices on available prescription

Produce four more leaflets to support BTS/ACPRC 2009 Guideline

During 2012 we surveyed the ACPRC membership and asked which additional leaflets would be most helpful to members, to follow on from the ones already produced to support the BTS/ACPRC 2009 Guideline. The response from members indicated that there were four that would be of most benefit, and we aim to produce these this year. These leaflets are:

• Exercise
• Oscillating PEP
• PEP
• Autogenic Drainage

This piece of work will be led by Lizzie Flude. If you are interested in working with Lizzie to complete one of these leaflets, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Collaborate with CSP on clinical outcomes project

During 2012 the ACPRC committee worked with CSP to develop outcome measures for respiratory physiotherapy interventions, based on pre-prescribed generic outcome measures that are proposed for national use. There is potential for this work to continue with some further development and testing of the application of these measures. ACPRC has committed to remaining involved in this project, however it is not clear at present what this will involve.

Additional activities

In addition to the six projects outlined above, ACPRC will undertake other activities throughout the year:

• Deliver additional study days
  • Paediatric Cardiorespiratory study day in April 2013
  • Writing for Publication study day in October / November 2013
  • Potential for additional champion study days

• Support international exchange of information and ideas
  • Deliver a study day / two day course in Malta, for the Maltese Physiotherapy Association in September / October 2013