Barriers to managing heart failure in primary care

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7394.883/a

BMJ 2003;326:883 ( 19 April )

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Barriers to managing heart failure in primary care

Heart failure clinics provide crucial link between primary and secondary care

Previous study revealed other factors to be important in management

Heart failure clinics provide crucial link between primary and secondary care

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Fuat et al surveyed attitudes towards managing heart failure in general practice.¹ Points of particular note includeddifficulties in assessing subtle early signs of heart failure,difficulties in interpreting echocardiography reports, and concernsabout the number of drugs recommended for patients with heartfailure.

This study further strengthens the case for specialist heart failure clinics as outlined in the national service frameworkfor coronary heart disease.² Such clinics have a multidisciplinaryteam consisting of physicians (specialist and primary care), specialistnurses, and cardiac technicians, and these teams facilitate acoordinated approach to diagnosing, assessing, and managing heartfailure. Objective evidence of cardiac dysfunction may be obtainedand interpreted by a cardiologist, with the subsequent formulationof a treatmentstrategy.

We believe that this is preferable to open access echocardiography services, with the difficulties in interpretation highlightedby Fuat et al.¹ Specialist dedicated nursing provides a crucialbridge between . . . [Full text of this article]

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Barriers to accurate diagnosis and effective management of heart failure in primary care: qualitative study: Ahmet Fuat, A Pali S Hungin, and Jeremy James Murphy
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