This section will aim to answer your main questions and concerns about the oxygen service. Other details can be found in the relevant sections on this website.
Who supplies my oxygen?
Through our nurse advisors and homecare technicians, Air Products will endeavour to provide you with a Home Oxygen Service that ensures your quality of life. We will provide you with the oxygen equipment best suited to your individual needs, delivering to your home and installing any oxygen equipment where necessary. We can offer you access to modern oxygen equipment, a free holiday service in the UK and a dedicated UK patient helpline.
What are Air Products’ responsibilities?
To provide and maintain the best oxygen equipment to suit your needs and to support the advice your doctor or specialist respiratory team gives you to help manage your condition.
How do I contact Air Products?
Call our Homecare Helpline on Freephone 0800 373580. You can use this number for all enquiries during normal working hours (8am – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday). It is available at all other times if you need urgent help. If you need emergency medical advice or help, you should contact your General Practitioner (GP) or ring for an ambulance.
How will I identify the Air Products technician?
All Air Products’ technicians carry an identity card. You must ask to see this before you let them into your home. Do not let anyone into your home if you are unsure about their identity.
How qualified are your staff?
All Air Products’ technicians undergo a thorough training programme before they are allowed to make service visits. Some have many years experience of servicing oxygen equipment and helping patients with their needs.
What security checks do you carry out on your staff?
All our staff are vetted before they join the company. In the case of staff in regular direct contact with patients, such as our technicians, this includes a full police check to ensure they are suitable for the position.
What is a HOOF?
The Home Oxygen Order Form (HOOF) is the document used by your GP or respiratory specialist to prescribe your oxygen requirements. On the HOOF, your doctor will indicate what type of oxygen therapy you need based on their assessment of your condition and understanding of your lifestyle. It will include, for example, how many hours a day you need oxygen and whether you need portable oxygen to get out and about. We use the information on your HOOF to select the most suitable equipment for you and your home environment.
How will I get my oxygen?
Once we have received your HOOF, we will arrange for our homecare technician to deliver your oxygen equipment to your home. We supply all oxygen equipment – cylinders, concentrators and liquid oxygen systems.
On the first visit, the homecare technician will explain your oxygen equipment to you and make sure you are comfortable using it before they leave. They will discuss with you the safest place for you to store, and install if required, your oxygen equipment. If you are provided with a concentrator, the technician can install some plastic piping and wall taps in another room to avoid trailing tubing.
How quickly will you deliver my oxygen?
The standard delivery for your oxygen cylinders is 3 working days. This means that if you call us to order more oxygen cylinders on a Monday before 5.30pm, we will deliver before the end of Thursday that week. If you order oxygen cylinders on a Thursday before 5.30pm, we will deliver before the end of Tuesday the following week.
If you have been provided with a liquid oxygen system, your homecare technician will advise you of your delivery schedule.
How do I get a repeat oxygen delivery?
The HOOF is valid until changed or cancelled by your GP or respiratory specialist. Unless your oxygen needs or condition changes, you will not need to obtain a new HOOF.
When you need more oxygen cylinders, you don’t need a repeat HOOF. Simply call us on 0800 373 580 (8.00am – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday) when you start your last oxygen cylinder, or at least three working days before you’ll need a new oxygen cylinder.
We will provide you with oxygen cylinders until your GP changes your order or refers you to a specialist respiratory team for reassessment.
If you have a concentrator, keep using that machine until your doctor advises us of a change in your needs. We will continue to maintain and service the machine at the required times.
Who do I contact if my respiratory condition changes?
If you are feeling unwell, or that your current oxygen therapy is no longer helping your condition, please contact your GP for advice. Your GP may refer you to a respiratory consultant for further advice and treatment and then issue us with a new HOOF. A new HOOF may mean changes to your flow rate and/or your equipment.
You should not alter your oxygen therapy without consulting your doctor or respiratory specialist. Air Products cannot change your oxygen therapy without a new HOOF.
If you need urgent medical assistance you should contact your GP’s emergency service or call 999 for an ambulance.
I have been told about an oxygen assessment – what is this?
Over time, all patients who have been prescribed oxygen will be assessed by a specialist respiratory team to ensure the oxygen you currently use is appropriate for you. The assessment will look at what oxygen you need when carrying out different activities such as sitting and walking. The specialist team will then adjust your flow rate, and where necessary, change your equipment to make sure it is still the most suitable for your condition and lifestyle. They will send us a new HOOF if any changes are recommended.
Will the equipment be complicated?
When our homecare technician visits you for the first time you will be shown how to use all the oxygen equipment. They will ensure you are comfortable with it before they leave. We also provide instructions in your Patient Pack for you to refer to. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Our Homecare Helpline staff are here to help if you are unsure or have forgotten what the Air Products technician said to you. Please call the Homecare Helpline 0800 373580 between 8.00am-5.30pm, Monday to Friday.
Is oxygen equipment safe?
Provided that safety guidelines are followed, oxygen equipment can be safely used in your home. The most important advice is to never smoke when using oxygen. Failure to follow this advice could result in serious harm to yourself, your house and others.
Do you provide things like tubing and masks?
Your technician will supply all the nasal cannulae, tubing and masks you require and will top up this supply each visit if required.
If you are running short you can also order by phone on 0800 373580 (8.00am – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday) and we will send out your disposables by post.
What do I do if I move house?
If you are moving house, but staying with the same GP, you should inform your doctor as soon as possible giving them the date that you will be resident in your new home. They will then send us a new HOOF and we will then make arrangements for your supplies to start in the new location as soon as you arrive.
Note:
We cannot make a delivery to your new address until we have received the new HOOF from your GP stating your new address, so it is advisable to inform your GP in plenty of time.
If you are moving to a new area and changing your GP, you should make contact with your new GP before you leave to arrange for a new HOOF for your new home as soon as you move in.
In all cases remember to visit your GP to arrange oxygen supplies for the day that you move.
Will you service the equipment?
Yes, your homecare technician will do this every six months.
In between the service visits, you need to perform some simple maintenance (such as cleaning filters) to ensure the efficient operation of the machine.
How will my electricity be paid?
You will be reimbursed for any electricity your concentrator uses. A meter reading will be taken twice a year from your machine during the normal service visits. You will then receive payments every quarter either based on your meter reading or on an estimate, which is calculated using your previous readings.
If you want these paid by direct debit into your bank account you need to contact our Homecare Helpline on 0800 373580. A form will then be sent out to you to complete.
> Electricity refund leaflet
Why did your technician ask me for details of my electricity company?
For added safety, we notify your electricity company that you have an oxygen concentrator in your home so that, in the event of a prolonged power cut, you are treated as a priority customer by them.
To ensure our records are up-to-date, it is important that you notify us if you change your electricity company.
What if I have a complaint about the service?
Air Products aim to give patients the best service at all times. But, if our service does not meet your expectations, please tell us immediately by calling our Homecare helpline on Freephone 0800 373580. If you are still unhappy, you should put your complaint in writing and address it to:
Customer Complaints
Air Products Healthcare
2 Millennium Gate
Westmere Drive
Crewe,
Cheshire, CW1 6AP
You can also contact your local Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) managed by your Primary Care Trust or Local Health Board, who oversee the Home Oxygen Service in your region. Their number will be in the phone book.
| Homecare Helpline |
| Call our Homecare Helpline on Freephone 0800 373 580 Urgent calls only outside these hours |
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| Information about electricity refund facts [PDF, 968 KB] > Electricity refund leaflet |
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