Severe COPD

• People on what is sometimes called triple therapy. This means taking a long acting beta agonist (LABA) and a long acting muscarinic agonist (LAMA) and an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in either November or December 2019. These could be prescribed as either 3 separate medicines or combinations of single and dual or combination medicines or as triple therapy.
• People who’ve had a prescription for Roflumilast
• Everyone who has severe or very severe airflow obstruction. This is measured using a breathing test called spirometry where you blow out as hard as you can. If the lung damage means that the amount of air you can blow out in 1 second is less than 50% of what it should be, it is classed as severe. Severe or very severe airflow obstruction is sometimes described as GOLD grade 3 or GOLD grade 4.
• People who have been admitted to hospital in the past because of an acute attack of their lung condition.
• People who are very limited by breathlessness – this means that even walking normally at your own pace you have to stop after 100 yards or a few minutes on level ground. Health care professionals sometimes use a measure called the MRC score. This scores breathlessness on a scale of 1 to 5. If you have a score of 4 or 5 you should be shielding.
• People who have multiple medical problems – many people with COPD have other medical problems, such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Each of these may increase an individual’s risk.
• People who need to use oxygen therapy at home
• People who need to use non-invasive ventilation at home – a mask ventilator, sometimes called BiPAP, to support their breathing at night