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More Information Necessary for Chest Pain Referrals
Members of the Angina Forum recently developed a template for information that must be passed between primary and secondary health care providers for patients who experience chest pain. The new template will be disseminated and used among general practitioners and rapid access chest pain clinics. They developed this template in response to collective concerns that insufficient information is being shared—which results in treatment delay, misdiagnosis, and inappropriate treatment.
The consensus guidance provides a checklist for the essential information that should accompany suspected angina patients on referral to rapid access chest pain clinics and on their return to primary care. The list is also available as a pro-forma which can be adopted or modified for local variations.
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In developing its guidance, the Angina Forum group explored examples of best practice and arrived at a consensus regarding the information that should pass between primary and secondary care in cases of suspected angina. The template addresses many of the things often overlooked, such as family history and known intolerances to certain anti-anginal drugs. It also serves as a check to ensure that urgent cases, such as severe chest pain that occurs at rest or lasts longer than 20 minutes, are treated as emergencies and not referred to the chest pain clinics.
For patients referred back from the RACPC to the GP, the template will help ensure that a rational management plan is included. It will also identify when anti-anginal drugs have been stopped or new medical therapy initiated.
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