The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Opportunistic screening versus usual care for diagnosing atrial fibrillation in general practice: a cluster randomised controlled trial.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and all-cause mortality. AF may be asymptomatic and therefore remain undiagnosed. Devices such as single-lead electrocardiographs (ECGs) may help GPs to diagnose AF. ⋯ Opportunistic screening with a single-lead ECG at the discretion of the GP did not result in a higher yield of newly detected cases of AF in patients aged ≥65 years in the community than usual care. For higher participation rates in future studies, more rigorous screening methods are needed.
-
Bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics changes over time. Knowledge of the susceptibility is important for antibiotic treatment guidelines in general practices. ⋯ The antibiotic susceptibility percentages to the agents tested were stable over the 10-year period, except for ciprofloxacin as was the prevalence of ESBL producing E. coli. Surveillance with regular intervals is warranted.
-
The importance of multi-agency working to identify, prevent and reduce domestic abuse is widely recognised. Interprofessional learning opportunities can provide a supportive learning environment for multi-agency practitioners to explore and develop collaborative approaches to improve health outcomes for vulnerable children, young people and their families.Participants drawn from Kent GP trainees, student Health Visitors, School Nurses, Midwives, Social Workers, student Teachers and Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), and postgraduate Police Officers attended this sixth annual conference. ⋯ The conference provided a highly valued opportunity for useful interprofessional learning about domestic abuse. Results indicated that it increased participants' knowledge and confidence about their own and others' roles and responsibilities.
-
Primary care networks (PCNs) are a new organisational hierarchy introduced in the NHS Long Term Plan with wide-ranging responsibilities. The vision is that they represent 'natural' communities of general practices with boundaries that make sense to practices, other healthcare providers, and local communities. ⋯ With PCNs expected to take a role in population health management and with community providers expected to reconfigure around them, it is vital we recognise how PCNs represent their communities. This method may be used by policymakers to understand the populations and geography shared between networks.
-
The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) was introduced to standardise early warning scores (EWS) in England. It has been recommended that NEWS should be used in pre-hospital care but there is no published evidence that this improves outcomes. In 2015, the West of England Academic Health Science Network region standardised to NEWS across all healthcare settings. Calculation of NEWS was recommended for acutely unwell patients at referral into secondary care. ⋯ To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that use of NEWS in pre-hospital care is associated with improved outcomes in patients with SOS.