Current daily care for COPD
The Practice Guideline COPD of the Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG standard, 2007) recommends general practitioners (GP’s) advise all patients with COPD to be sufficient physically active [5]. Referral to a physical exercise training programme in a physiotherapy setting is advised only in patients with moderate to severe COPD, who have impairments in physical functioning due to dyspnoea. As of 2010, there is a new development in the primary care organization of patients with chronic disease in the Netherlands, including COPD. Disease management
programmes have regionally been developed by general practitioners in collaboration with other caregivers in primary care. General practitioners and/or the nurse practitioner have a central role. Their COPD care entails lung function testing, prescription of pharmacotherapy and counselling on smoking cessation, inhalation technique and physical activity. There is the possibility to refer patients with mild to moderate COPD to registered physiotherapists, experienced in COPD care. The implementation of this disease management programme for COPD is encouraged by the reimbursement through so-called chained diagnose-treatment combination (DTC) [29]. Although in some regions in the Netherlands these disease management programmes for COPD are already implemented and serve as current daily care, no evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes is available. In addition, no data are available on the added value of a physical exercise training programme compared to advice on increasing daily physical activity in usual care.