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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a lung condition that affects over a million people in England. The main symptom is breathlessness, which can suddenly worsen resulting in hospital care. There is no cure for COPD, so we need to support patients to manage their condition themselves, by monitoring symptoms, using inhalers and other medication correctly and by seeking help only when needed.

Self-management support is given during check-up appointments in general practice, yet patients report there is not enough time for discussion. Some practices are trying shared medical appointments (SMAs), where a group of 6-12 patients, with the same condition, share a longer appointment. Patients can ask staff questions and share their experiences with the group.

We do not know how well shared medical appointments work for patients with COPD or whether it is more costly than usual care. Recently, more care is being delivered by video, but we do not know if this is possible in groups of patients. We will test these ideas in a small study to help decide if a larger, more expensive, trial is possible in the future.

We will recruit 132 patients with COPD and allocate them, at random, to attend a shared appointment in-person or by video-link, or receive usual care.

 We will:

1. Measure the number of patients that take part and remain in the study
2. Interview patients about experiences in the study
3. Test how to collect information from patients about NHS use
4. Interview staff about how well shared appointments work
5. Test how to collect information about time and money needed to run SMAs
6. Use our findings to decide if a larger trial is possible

   Please click on the Participant Information Sheet for more details about taking part.

You can watch a short animation about the study below or on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbC5d6_X4rk