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General practitioners also use open access computed tomography wisely
EDITOR,--In their editorial J R Hampton and A R Barlow claim, "Few doctors want ... open access computed tomography for headache."1 In Bolton direct referral for computed tomography by general practitioners has been available for the past two years; the waiting time for an appointment with a neurologist has recently fallen to 16 weeks. The normal procedure is for the general practitioner to discuss the case with a radiologist on the telephone. Obviously there must be some doubt about the cause of the headache. If the patient has neurological signs associated with the headache then the advice is to refer the patient to a specialist rather than for scanning so that the specialist can investigate as he or she sees fit. If the general practitioner is sufficiently concerned to refer the patient even if the scan shows no appreciable abnormality then the advice is the same.
There is no evidence
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- J R Hampton and A R Barlow
BMJ 1995 310: 611-612.[Extract] [Full Text]
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