The Respiratory Department
We have now moved into the new hospital building as part of the Clinical Measurement Unit (CMU). Please click here for a map of the CMU.
Respiratory services provided by the Department consist of outpatient clinics, a day stay unit and inpatient (ward) care. Outpatient clinics are held at Wellington and Kenepuru Hospitals. The Pulmonary Function Laboratory provides breathing testing for people referred in from family doctors and other specialists, as well as those people being seen in respiratory clinics.
The Sleep Disorders service and Immunology/Allergy are also based in this Department.
The Department is staffed by respiratory physicians (doctors who specialise in treating conditions of the lungs), specially trained nurses, technicians, and registrars (doctors training to be specialists), and the clerical staff who organise appointments.
What is Respiratory Medicine?
Respiratory medicine is the branch of medicine that treats people with diseases affecting the lungs and breathing.
Common symptoms of lung disease include: shortness of breath, wheezing, long-term cough, coughing up blood, and having chest pains. A lot of different conditions are seen in the Department for instance asthma, COPD, fibrosis of the lungs, lung cancer, pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs), lung disease caused by work, and numerous uncommon disorders.
Sleep Medicine
A lot of problems are included in this - from difficulty getting to sleep to excess sleepiness in the daytime. A lot of sleep problems are caused by disordered breathing during sleep, and many of our referrals are of this sort. The Department works closely with the University of Otago Sleep Laboratory (WellSleep) in sorting out these problems.
What is Immunology?
Immunology is the branch of medicine that is concerned with the study of the structure, function and disorders of the immune system. The immune system is a complex system of organs and cells that recognises foreign material, e.g. bacteria and viruses, in our bodies and builds a defence against them.
Immunology includes: the use of vaccines to protect against diseases, the role of the immune system in non-infectious diseases such as cancer, the damage that can be done to the body’s own tissues by the immune system (autoimmunity), and allergy.
A doctor who specialises in the prevention, diagnosis and management of immune system disorders is called an immunologist.
