Tag Archives: cardiology

Introduction The increasing burden on healthcare services, combined with effects of austerity, has placed the National Health Service (NHS) under pressure to achieve ever-greater efficiency, while improving the quality of service. An example of the increased demand is that the total number of hospital outpatient appointments in England has increased steadily by more than 3% per annum since 2011.1,2 The government, in the 2010 white paper, set out a redesigned pathway endorsing clinically led services based on more effective dialogue and communication between general practice and secondary care.3 Thus, integration of healthcare services has be

Introduction Effective communication is known to improve patient satisfaction,1 and has been correlated with improved health outcomes.2 It is estimated that the medical student learns up to 10,000 new words during the course of their medical degree.3 Doctors frequently employ this new vocabulary in patient consultations, leading to jargon that is potentially misunderstood,4 thus, impairing effective communication. A heavy emphasis is now placed on communication skills at medical school to reduce usage of this type of jargon and use more simplified terms. Patient understanding of commonly used cardiology terminology and doctors’ estimation

Criteria for an AS surveillance clinic were developed. Patients who were deemed suitable were identified from existing echocardiographic databases, discharge coding and review of the clinical notes. Patients with AS were identified (n=612). After a review of echocardiographic parameters, 117 patients were considered suitable for technician-led review. Of these, 47 patients (40%) were subsequently discharged from the cardiology clinic. A small proportion of patients are reviewed in the general cardiology clinic for no other reason than asymptomatic mild AS (5% of follow-up appointments). Establishment of a national AS surveillance programme c

Those doctors wishing to pursue hospital practice have taken a major hit from Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) where junior doctors ran headlong in to a disastrous training application process, leading to disappointment and uncertainty for many. In primary care there is a new GP Curriculum, a new General Medical Services contract and Pay-for-Performance programmes, which have attracted unprecedented levels of investment into the NHS. There are other, as yet untested, reforms including Practice-Based Commissioning and re-accreditation, looming. Never has it been more important for hospital and family practitioners to establish an integrated s

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