How care usually works here
Almost everyone starts with a 40-minute initial assessment. Your physiotherapist takes a history, listens to your chest, checks your oxygen levels, breathing pattern and effort, and looks at how far you can walk and what stops you. Where it's useful we measure it — walk tests, oxygen saturation, inspiratory muscle strength — so progress is something you can see rather than guess at.
From there we agree on a plan, and for most people it's a combination of things rather than one: a clearance technique or device if you have sputum, breathing retraining if your pattern has gone wrong, exercise to rebuild what breathlessness has taken, and education so you know what to do when things get worse. Follow-up appointments are 30 minutes, and they usually spread further apart as you get more confident running the program yourself.
Which service do I need?
- Coughing up sputum, or chest infections that keep coming back — start with airway clearance, often with a device we fit and teach you to use.
- Breathless walking, or losing fitness since a hospital stay — an assessment, then our pulmonary rehab classes.
- Breathing that feels wrong even at rest — start with shortness of breath and breathing retraining at your assessment.
- Breathless in sport or training — athletes and active people, and inspiratory muscle training.
- Not sure your puffer is doing anything — inhaler technique and education.
- Can't get to the clinic — home visits across metropolitan Adelaide.
If none of that quite fits, call us on (08) 8364 3706 and describe what's happening. We'd rather point you to the right person — including someone other than us — than book you into the wrong appointment. You can also run through our one-minute checklist.