The Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) Capacity Planning Tool has been developed by the NHS England National Respiratory Programme using Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), Clinical Practice Research Database and National Respiratory Audit Programme Pulmonary Rehabilitation data.
It is intended to provide information on the projected number of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in a chosen locality who are likely to progress through the Pulmonary Rehabilitation pathway.
This includes:
- The number of patients with COPD in a chosen locality and projected prevalence in future
- Estimations of the number of COPD patients who would be eligible and referred for pulmonary rehabilitation (PR)
- Modelling the number of COPD patients who would be eligible and start PR
- Modelling the number of COPD patients who complete PR treatment.
This tool is not intended to be used for comparison purposes. The differences between sub-Integrated Care Board (ICB) populations makes comparisons difficult without significant, additional adjustments to this tool. The tool is to analyse pulmonary rehabilitation use for COPD patients only, not patients with other respiratory conditions who undertake pulmonary rehabilitation. The tool was published in February 2026 and will be valid until February 2027.
Some users may find they are blocked from running the tool due to macros being disabled in MS Excel. It's a quick step to get the macro enabled, just follow the steps at this link: Enable or disable macros in Microsoft 365 files - Microsoft Support
If you have any queries on how to use this tool, please contact: england.pltc-pmo@nhs.net
