The new NHS: changing the face of British cardiology

The titles of the lectures at a recent Primary Care Cardiovascular Society (PCCS) meeting show the face of British cardiology is indeed changing. Control of NHS budgets and of patient care is shifting; guidelines for prevention of disease continue to change in line with new evidence; new ways of learning are being developed and yet more new laboratory tests are being pressed into service. As usual the PCCS speakers articulately covered the topics – they also had to be succinct as, after just 90 minutes, the session was over and it was ‘all change’ for the audience. Medical writer Ola Soyinka reports from the PCCS plenary session at the British Cardiac Society Annual Conference in Manchester on 25th May 2004.