A collaborative working project to establish a stepped approach to developing a Tier 2 treatment centre for patients with Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) at The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust supported by a network coordinator at The Royal Devon University Hospital Foundation Trust.

The collaboration is between Boehringer Ingelheim Limited (BIL), The Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust (TSDFT) and The Royal Devon University Hospital Foundation Trust (RDUHFT) to establish a stepped approach to developing a Tier 2 treatment centre, based at TSDFT, supported by an ILD network coordinator role based at the RDUHFT to facilitate an improved care pathway for ILD corresponding with NHS England’s plans for a National Consensus Pathway for integrated ILD care.

ILD comprises a broad spectrum of conditions characterised by inflammation and/or fibrosis of the lung, leading to impaired gas exchange. One of the most common of these conditions is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The NICE Quality standard for IPF specifies that services should be commissioned from and coordinated across all relevant organisations encompassing the whole IPF care pathway.1 A patient-centred, integrated approach to providing services is fundamental to delivering high-quality care to adults with IPF.1

IPF is diagnosed via a complex care pathway that includes primary, secondary, and tertiary specialist care involvement. These complexities contribute to the delay between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis, with 40% of patients nationally waiting for more than 2 years to be diagnosed2. Some individuals may also experience anxiety and depression and the all-cause mortality rate is 35%2.

This Collaborative Working Project aims to implement a best practice ILD shared care pathway with the objectives below.

A. Improve access to treatment across TSDFT:

• Implement a unified appointment system to ensure timely access to specialist care.
• Introduce the role of a local ILD coordinator.

B. Generate replicable and scalable coordination across the Southwest Network:

• Introduce the role of a regional ILD coordinator
• Address care inequality for ILD patients across the network

C. Reduce Waiting Times:

• Create individual and shared protocols to streamline flow.
• Use TSDFT MDTs to triage and repatriate patients.
• Begin local prescribing to reduce tertiary referrals.
• Develop same-day “one-stop” clinics

D. Minimise Duplication:

• Align MDT meetings across sites.
• Share patient data via a central system.
• Coordinate diagnostics to avoid repeats

E. Enhance Patient Experience:

• Improving continuity of care and closer to home
• Evaluate patient outcomes and feedback to improve the care pathway.

This project will mobilise shared resources for a period of 24 months.

BIL is proud to be collaborating with TSDFT and RDUHFT to implement this national consensus pathway, to improve both the health and quality of patients’ lives, and efficiencies within the NHS.

References:

1. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2015). Quality standard (QS79) Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in Adults. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs79 (Last accessed December 25)

2. British Thoracic Society. BTS ILD Registry Annual Report. UK. https://www.brit-thoracic.org.uk/quality-improvement/lung-disease-registries/bts-ild-registry/.https://www.brit-thoracic.org.uk/quality-improvement/ 2021. (Last accessed December 25)

NP-GB-106547  December  2025

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