For most people this involves attending the specialist bronchiectasis outpatient clinic at 6 to 12 month intervals to allow assessment of your condition. If your condition is milder you may be followed up by your GP.
You may be asked to fill in a questionnaire while waiting for your appointment. This helps us understand your condition better. This may include a quality of life questionnaire which asks a range of questions about how your day to day living has been affected by your bronchiectasis since you last attended the clinic. These questionnaires are tried and tested; over time they give a good indication of how effective treatments are.
Tests
If you can, please try and bring a sputum sample to every clinic visit. Other tests may be carried out at your clinic appointment but these are not necessary at every visit. These may include breathing tests, blood tests and chest x-rays. CT scans and more detailed breathing tests are carried out at separate appointments when needed.
Stable or Deteriorating
These tests allow the doctors to determine whether your condition is stable or deteriorating and this allows them to assess whether the treatment plan needs to change. Always ask the doctor what the results show to find out how you are doing.
