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In this episode of Up, Up & Away, host Dom Burch sits down with Dr Tom Chambers and Dr David Dawson to explore one of the NHS’s most overlooked health challenges: obstructive sleep apnoea.

More than 9 million adults in the UK remain undiagnosed, making sleep apnoea one of the biggest untreated conditions affecting public health. Untreated sleep disorders significantly increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression and road traffic accidents—yet referral pathways, diagnostic capacity and waiting times remain major barriers across the country.

Tom and David explain why traditional, hospital-led models simply can’t cope with the rising demand (referrals for sleep studies have gone up by 102%) and how their innovation, Theta Sleep, is aiming to transform diagnosis and treatment by delivering a fully digital, end-to-end pathway that patients can access from home.

👇 In this episode:

• Why sleep apnoea is so widely under-diagnosed
• The story behind Bradford’s first sleep clinic
• What inspired Tom and David to co-found Theta Sleep
• Why every stage of the current pathway is a bottleneck
• The role of new NICE-approved home sleep diagnostics
• How digital tools reduce unnecessary appointments
• Why patients don’t always need to see a consultant
• The preventative health opportunity in sleep medicine
• What needs to change in the NHS to scale care
• Why sleep is now recognised as the fourth pillar of health

💡 Key Quotes

“Referrals for sleep studies have gone up by 102%. It’s now the fastest-growing diagnostic test in the NHS.” — Dr Tom Chambers
“We now have around 7,500 people on treatment with a waiting time of just three weeks — compared to more than a year elsewhere.” — Dr David Dawson
“Patients don’t always need a consultant seeing them. With oversight and digital tools, other clinicians can safely do much of the work.” — Dr David Dawson

🌙 Why this matters

Sleep disorders dramatically increase long-term morbidity and mortality, yet public conversations focus mostly on “sleep hygiene tips” like screen time and 8-hour sleep targets. As Tom explains, the bigger problem is the millions of people living with undiagnosed clinical sleep disorders that require proper diagnosis and treatment.

Digital-first, community-based care could change that—and improve population health at scale.

🎧 Listen if you’re interested in:

• NHS innovation
• digital health and remote care
• preventative healthcare
• respiratory medicine
• chronic condition management
• medical entrepreneurship
• clinical pathways and redesign
• health tech startup stories