Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, His Majesty’s Senior Coroner Dr Fiona J Wilcox outlined that an inquest must be held in order to investigate the deaths. As well as an inquest, a Regulation 28 legal report was issued to various authorities including the NHS, which established the importance of long-term health monitoring for fire’s survivor and bereaved.

The Regulation 28 says:

• that those exposed to the fire were at risk of developing health conditions, particularly respiratory illness
• that no health screening programme existed for those exposed to the fire
• that without appropriate health screening, there was a risk that illness would develop unnoticed and result in poor health outcomes for those affected
• therefore, an appropriate health screening programme should be set up.

What is the Grenfell Adult Long Term Monitoring Service

One of the long term health monitoring services set up in 2019 by the NHS specifically for the fire survivors aged 18 or above, has been the Grenfell Adult Long Term Monitoring Service.

The service is a specialist service for survivors who were in Grenfell Tower on the night of the fire and may have been exposed to smoke and dust. The service provides an annual check of lung and breathing functions, with the aim of identifying any respiratory health conditions at the earliest opportunity; as well as ensuring affected individuals have access to appropriate expert follow-up and treatment.

The service is offered by a team of respiratory specialist doctors and clinicians based at both Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (St Mary's Hospital) and at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Chelsea & Westminster Hospital). Website links to these Departments are included below.

The Community Respiratory Team provide respiratory health services for other North Kensington residents including those who are bereaved by the fire if they have concerns about any respiratory symptoms. Individuals can be referred to this service by their GP.

What does the Grenfell Adult Long Term Monitoring Service do:

• provides a yearly comprehensive lung function test for the adult Grenfell Tower fire Survivors and follow-up appointments to discuss results
• provides a yearly detailed assessment of respiratory health including any additional tests eg scans if needed and an opportunity to answer questions about respiratory symptoms or concerns
• ensures early and accurate diagnosis of respiratory conditions if they arise, and timely onward referral to respiratory physiotherapy or other clinical support services when needed
• minimise the impact of the disease through review of management plans for any respiratory conditions.

Other responsibilities of the service:

• with partners carry out ongoing review of patient facing literaturea and with service user input set up service user feedback mechanisms
• work closely with other Grenfell Partners including NHS, local authority, GPs and Public Health, to remain vigilant in detecting new patterns of respiratory conditions if they arise including reporting to North Kensington Recovery Team and Grenfell Clinical Network patient-anonymous key findings for shared learning of what is being found through clinical monitoring
• supporting Public Health, GPs and NHS networks to ensure appropriate, anonymised respiratory health specific outcomes are analysed appropriately so any new patterns or increase in respiratory conditions will be detected through the regular public health reporting systems.

Patient experience and support, responsibilities undertaken by the service:

• ongoing improvement and has a commitment to continuously review processes, ensuring service alignment with the evolving needs of the patients it serves
• coordinating with other specialist respiratory services, for exmaple the asthma service for those patients requiring further input alongside the annual long term monitoring review
• supporting young adults who transition from Grenfell Paediatric Long Term Monitoring service, to adult services, to access Grenfell Adult Respiratory service for continued respiratory monitoring.

Contacting the service

Those who are eligible for the service can contact the service, at:

Mobile: 07345 153131

E-mail: imperial.grenfell.adultlungmonitoring@nhs.net

Help shape and omprove the service

If you are a Grenfell Survivor resident who have had an appointment at the Grenfell Adult Respiratory Long Term Monitoring Service in the last 12 months, it would be very helpful to us if you can provide some feedback on your experience. We have some questions you can respond to, it will take approximately five minutes to respond Here

Further information

You can find out more information through these websites links:

• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Respiratory Department
• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust Respiratory Department 
• Who Monitors What: Various health monitoring responsibilities
• Grenfell Paediatrics (Chidlren and Young People) Long Term Monitoring Service
• Community Respiratory Service for local residents 
• Air quality monitoring led by UK Health Security Agency: Environmental and air quality monitoring :: NHS North Kensington Major Incident Response
• Local Public Health’s Grenfell Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and other intelligence and data on the health and wellbeing needs of the local population in Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster: Joint Strategic Needs Assessment | JSNAs for Westminster & Kensington and Chelsea
• Health services available to Grenfell Tower fire impacted residents
• Health services available any resident living locally to Kensington and Chelsea, Queens Park, Westminster area