Published 20 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2156
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2156

Letters

Transient ischaemic attack

Wrong conclusion

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

Lasserson and colleagues show that people trust their own general practitioners more than NHS Direct or out of hours services organised by the primary care trust.1 No surprise there. But the researchers’ conclusions are wrong.

Strokes and transient ischaemic attacks (TIA) cannot be investigated or treated in a standard general practice surgery; most of us do not have a computed tomography scanner or access to intravenous thrombolysis. The best place for these patients is a hospital, and as quickly as possible. Arranging to see your GP is merely a delay when time is of the essence.

The correct conclusion is that we need to educate people about the symptoms of a stroke/TIA (now sometimes referred to as a brain attack) and encourage them to head directly to hospital. In the current atmosphere of government led GP bashing the authors’ conclusion is at best mistaken.

Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2156

Giles Field, salaried general practitioner1

1 Churchdown, Gloucestershire GL2 2DB

gilesfield@doctors.org.uk

Competing . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Influence of general practice opening hours on delay in seeking medical attention after transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke: prospective population based study
Daniel S Lasserson, Arvind Chandratheva, Matthew F Giles, David Mant, and Peter M Rothwell
BMJ 2008 337: a1569. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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