Lung health assessment

Early diagnosis and treatment 

A lung health check can give you the reassurance you need to live an active life. Our lung health assessment service offers a range of diagnostic tests that help us examine your lung health and check for underlying respiratory conditions at the earliest stages.  

Our lung health assessment service is available at Harefield Hospital and is designed for patients with a range of common symptoms, including breathlessness, cough, chest pain, and wheezing.  

At a lung health assessment, our respiratory experts examine aspects of your lifestyle and clinical history so they can identify and diagnose any underlying risks affecting your lung health. This helps to ensure that you receive a personalised care plan, preserving your lung health for as long as possible.

Understanding your lung health  

The symptoms of many lung diseases can overlap with those of other conditions such as hay fever, heart conditions, and gastrointestinal issues.  

Almost 600,000 respiratory disease diagnoses are made each year in the UK, and around 50% of these relate to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition that affects airflow to the lungs.  

Our specialist screening techniques allow our experts to diagnose and monitor lung conditions – even at an early stage before symptoms develop. We will recommend treatment and any further tests that may be needed.

Who can benefit from our lung health assessment service?  

There are several signs which indicate that you would benefit from a lung health assessment. If you experience any of the following symptoms, having your lung health checked could help diagnose the cause of any issues you are living with, such as:  

• breathlessness 
• chest pain 
• cough 
• excessive daytime sleepiness 
• generally feeling unwell 
• night sweats 
• snoring 
• unexplained infections 
• weight loss 
• wheezing 

We can also see patients who have previously been diagnosed with conditions including COPD, asthma, heart disease, and long COVID.  

What does the lung health assessment package include?  

Our expert team will perform some initial tests to establish a diagnosis and form a personalised care plan for each patient. These tests include:  

• blood tests  
• electrocardiogram (ECG) – monitors your heart’s rhythm and electrical activity 
• heart rate and blood pressure checks  
• spirometry – measures how much air you can exhale and how quickly 

Based on the outcome of the lung health assessment, you may be recommended to have further tests to determine what further care is required.

What to expect at your lung health assessment 

When you arrive for your appointment, our team will ask you some questions about your lifestyle and medical history to build a bigger picture of your health. The blood tests carried out at the appointment are very quick – only very small vials of blood are taken, which are then sent for analysis. These results should be available in 2 working days. 

An ECG is one of the most common heart tests and can be carried out very quickly at the appointment, providing your lung specialist with fast results. It works by attaching 10 sticky electrodes to your chest, wrists and ankles. These electrodes are connected by wires to an ECG machine which measures the electrical activity of your heart. 

Your heart and lungs work closely together, so problems with one can often affect the other. An ECG helps us to check your heart’s function, which can be useful in providing answers about the cause of symptoms like breathlessness, chest discomfort or fatigue, which relate to both heart and lung health.  

Your blood pressure and heart rate will be checked by using a blood pressure cuff on your arm. The cuff gently squeezes your arm to measure how hard your heart works to pump blood around your body. Our team check your blood pressure during a lung health assessment because low oxygen levels or lung disease can put extra strain on your heart, and in turn raise your blood pressure. 

Spirometry is a simple lung function test which measures how much air you can breathe out in one breath. During a spirometry test, you’ll be asked to breathe into a special tube connected to a machine (called a spirometer). 

The test is carried out with you sitting down, and a soft clip will be placed over your nose to stop you from breathing through it. We’ll then explain what you need to do during the test, and you might be asked to practise a few breaths first. The test will begin once you’re comfortable and ready to proceed. 

You’ll be asked to take a deep breath to completely fill your lungs, seal your lips firmly around the mouthpiece, and breathe out as fast and forcefully as you can until your lungs are empty. The results of the spirometry will give our lung specialists information about how well your lungs are working.

Preparing for a lung health assessment 

To help our lung specialists get the most accurate results from your lung health assessment, there are some guidelines we recommend following, and other ways to help you prepare for the appointment. 

If you smoke, you don’t need to stop smoking completely before the appointment, as it will help us to understand your lung health in the context of your lifestyle more accurately. However, if possible, you should avoid smoking for a day before your spirometry, as it can affect your results. If you have an inhaler, you should avoid using it before the spirometry, unless advised otherwise by our team, as some tests must be carried out without medication to assess your baseline function. 

To help achieve accurate results for your heart rate and blood pressure checks, you should try to arrive to your appointment in good time and relaxed, as stress can elevate your heart rate and blood pressure. We also recommend avoiding strenuous exercise, caffeine, and heavy meals on the day of the test, as these can also affect your readings. 

To help our team access your upper arm to take blood pressure readings, wearing a short-sleeved, loose-fitting top is recommended.  

Our dedicated customer service team will be in touch with you before your appointment to ensure that you have all relevant information to help you prepare, and that you know what to expect when visiting us. 

How much does a lung health assessment cost?

The cost of the lung health assessment package is £750.