They say the earlier your health issue is detected the more chance you have of being treated effectively.
Would you presume that if a radiologist detected coronary artery disease on a chest Xray and duly reported this to the requesting consultant/ doctor that they would inform both the patient or the GP accordingly for further investigation?
Apparently not, according the a medical director of a top NHS health trust.
When i queried why he abruptly informed me they only do so if the patient has been complaining of pain or other tell tale signs.
Otherwise they ignore such reports.
I have this in writing!
Would love to know your views.
Written by
Mrbojangles
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if you can reduce your risk surely health professionals have a duty to act on information which indicates you are at risk - a doctor who ignores such information is at risk of breaking the "first do no harm"rule
It doesn't surprise me I'm afraid. The NHS don't practice preventative medicine, We have to be our own advocates and obtain copies of all tests in order to do so, which at least we are able to do without charge. The sad thing about this is that we don't learn this until we become ill.
Following an annual check-up, I was found to be pre-diabetic. I was put on a course which improved my blood sugar. There is some preventative medicine.
I have been pre-diabetic for years and have been offered no treatment and little advice. However, as soon as my husband was diagnosed as Type 2 diabetic (only just and his blood results now put him back at the same as mine) he was given an eye check, a foot check and lots of booklets on healthy eating and how to avoid becoming diabetic. Now wouldn't you think it would be a good idea to give those to people before they hit the magic '48' and become officially 'diabetic'? xx Moy
the NHS does, to some degree, practice preventative medicine - it is routine for people to be given "lifestyle" advice initially where they are known to be at risk of heart disease for example - a doctor who ignores information which indicates that a patient has clinical signs of Cardiovascular Disease is at risk of breaking the "first do no harm"rule
I completely agree with you. I didn’t get a letter saying that the results of my heart MRI were available and had been sent to my GP. After 9 weeks I chanced it up to be told that they had been available for 8 weeks, but my GP said she didn’t have them… The results were really not good, but if I hadn’t been proactive then (12 weeks later) I still wouldn’t know the results.
Hello
My view is the same as yours is and I never knew this till you posted
Quite surprised I would have never thought it but good to know as at least we are aware through you posting
They do extend your life if your in the middle of a heart attack. They change their minds every 10 minutes depending on what you read. If a stent increases the blood flow to or from your heart then it should extend your life to some extent, anyway they rarely shorten it so who really knows.
Stents definitely have their place if you are having a ST elevation heart attackdue to a total blockage of the coronary artery.
The jury is certainly still out. The ISCHEMIA trial was a bit of a shock for Cardiologists. The latest research seems to suggest that stents for stable angina don't extend life, rather improve the quality of a person's life by reducing angina.
I have unobstructed coronary arteries, I am still at risk of a ST elevation myocardial infarction due to a severe coronary vasospasm.
No stents for me, just medication that isn't very affective.
Hi and sorry to hear the medication is not very effective. In my case I was quite fit and on holidays in the canaries noticed that my usual 5mile walk was making me a bit tired which I reported to my GP when I got home even though I thought it was just the heat. Anyway he ordered a cardio stress test which showed ST depression followed by an angiogram that month. During the angiogram the cardiologist told me he seen a blockage at the top of my left coronary artery and asked me what I wanted to do. He recommended a stent rather than medication as he said the left artery is the most important of the three. I agreed and the stent was inserted and I have been fine since. I had no symptoms at all apart from that episode on holiday so not sure it was warrented but all my yearly echos and an MRI confirm no ischemia or problems. Only downside is I am now on Ramipril. low dose Bisoprolol and aspirin + statins but hey at 72 now I have a lot to be thankful for. Hope the medication starts working for you and I wish you the very best for the future.
I have to say if it was for my doctor referring my to the heart clinic Iwouldnt have known the full extent of my condition.
To add context I went to the doctor as I had a slight pain when running. I thought it was nothing major but worth a discussion. I was treated for asthma and also referred. I never had any further symptoms, not angina or further pains.
Luckily thanks to referral and departments talking I was found to have severe heart disease and needing a bypass which was rushed through within 10days.
Sometimes I think how departments communicate depends on the situation and need.
It took me 5 months to get a diagnosis because I couldnt get a GP appointment EConsuls werent answered I only had a symptom that Iwouldnt have related to heart problem..I suspected Peripheral Neuropathy so in the end i paid to see a Podiatrist ---she advised me to see a GP as she wasnt happy with doppler tests and I had to confirm I didnt have diabetes.I managed to arrange blood tests and I told the nurse that podiatrist was going to write to my GP The nurse arranged an ECG even though i didnt fit the criteria -the result was I had Attrial Fibrilation and Heart failure and put on Urgent list to see the Cardiologist .What is scary for me if i hadnt followed my instinct that something was wrong and paid to see a Podiatrist I would be walking around and not knowing that I had heart issues ----its the situation some of us find our selves in because we cannot get GP care- since this I have sent two E consuls and neither have been answered after 8 days . 76 years old just waiting for GP to sign off that its safe for me to work in a Gym ---still waiting -I have also joined a wellbeing class soI am being proactive although sometimesI want to give up ---not going to though
Well I meet many people who are on Statins and high blood pressure medication who have never had a heart attack. So doesn’t that point to prevention early . There are many of us who have hereditary heart disease and no matter how we follow a healthy diet and exercise we still have the disease . I am testament to that. I can only add that any chest pain that persists and becomes uncomfortable should always, always be investigated thoroughly . I only ever had passive ecg ‘s when I should have active ones. Also symptoms are sometimes very different for women
It’s a reason I’ve always requested my medical records afterwards so I can look at reports, etc. That’s as long as it’s on a report. The trouble is Drs ignore tell tale signs/symptoms regardless. I’ve got records that show I may have had heart failure for at least a few years yet Drs don’t think, only a private CPET and then paying a cardiologist who specialised interpreting those results did the GP refer. I did it more as a double check on pre op borderline abnormal ECG. Pre op didn’t mention that as they class that as ‘normal’.
GP’s don’t seem to read letters or digest any info. If in doubt always ask.
I don't think they will automatically tell you about incidental findings unless they are harmful to your health. I agree all incidental findings shouId be reported on by the radiographer and passed down the line to the the GP however I believe that abbreviated information is only sent to the GP unless there is something significant.
I had a massive gallstone and didn't know about it until I visited the consultant who had found it incidentally. Great that it was found though. 😊
I think it’s worth noting that whilst healthy lifestyles are a given for maintaining good heart health, arteries becoming blocked isn’t always caused by unhealthy lifestyles - e.g. familial high cholesterol. With coronary heart disease, a stent, type 2 diabetes and high BP, I had scan for something unrelated and the consultant’s letter to my GP said “…..we noticed on the scan that there is extensive atheroma. This lady needs monitoring closely.” I have heard nothing from my GP since.
i agree that active investigation may not be indicated but the person in question should at least be alerted, given appropriate risk-reducing advice and encouraged to act on this - otherwise a doctor risks breaking the rule of "first do no harm"
There ‘used to be ads’ that warned against stroke. Education is needed to encourage people to take care of themselves, it could be done in school biology lessons.
I was told last December they don’t operate on hernias now, yes, they wait for them to become strangulated!! I’d had a femoral hernia, not a normal one ie inguinal a more unusual with worse outcome.
As a Complementary Therapist I could find indications of things and would send patients to their drs who often scoffed only for me to be proved correct! A long term patient ended up with a kidney cancer resulting in a removal and treatment, should have been avoided!
I’ve been suffering lot of pain in head, neck, shoulder and back. Paid for osteopathy that ‘usually does the trick’ not this time and recently £450 for MRI to be told nothing wrong, it’s the ruddy pills I'm taking!!!! Been like this for 5 months and losing the will. I will be stopping the wretched poison very soon
I was a fit 74 year old man, never smoked, good diet, normal cholesterol level, normal blood pressure BMI of 22, did circuit training twice a week and regularly cycled up to 40 miles every weekend. Yet nearly 3 years ago I had a major heart attack which needed emergency angioplasty and two stents. Further the heart attack damaged the heart and I am now in "heart failure". The only indicator was that i had "sticky blood" My GP knew this but never referred me for an angiogram which could have prevented all this and would have been cost effective for the NHS. To say that life style changes can solve the problems is too simplistic.
I couldent agree more with you. I live in Ireland and our public health system is very similar to yours and equally as lax. The real difference is that over 50% of people here have private health insurance and the difference is massive. If I have had a scan for say abdomen and they found something else not related then they would pencil in an appointment for a consultant to deal with that issue. There is really no waiting list and if I need say an echocardiogram they do it pronto (within a week). I agree it is expensive and cost me 4000 euro a year for my wife and I but the peace of mind outweighs the money aspect. It is in their interest to keep you alive and well as it is a business to them as opposed to the public health system where you are just another number. We like you had an excellent health system back 20 or 30 yrs ago but it has been on the decline for years now. Of course if you have a serious emergency they will rush you in and sort it out and we all think how lucky we are, but finding problems before they advance is far more important without doubt.
My Stepmother lives in Kildare and has a full time carer now which i believe is covered on het insurance.
Re the heart issue, there must be thousands of people walking around with a ticking time bomb inside them who, if notified, could take preventative steps like aspirin or statins to prolong their lives.
In my letter to the trust i cynically told them i hope my next scan doesn’t show a tiny tumour as they would probably ignore that unless i was rolling on the floor in agony or my weight suddenly plummeted.
This is no surprise as a Consultant once told me it would cost the NHS thousands and thousands. I think a lesson to learn for all of us is "Each person/individual needs to stay in control of what they have, check all results that come back to our GP's". That way you can pick up, query anything that might be wrong and discuss it with your own Doctor who can then act accordingly. Now that you know the unexpected findings of Heart Disease I'm sure you can discuss what happens next with your GP. I personally think that if anything is found on an X-ray, then it should all be in a report to the person that ordered the X-ray. One of the reasons why HealthUnlocked is so fantastic is because it lets all share experiences like this so that we can discuss it together. Try not to panic and good luck.
Certainly the results of any investigation should be discussed with the patient by the requesting professional. Can you diagnose coronary artery disease on a plain chest X-ray though?
I personally know 2 people who have had serious problems show up on scans, never mentioned. I was diagnosed with AF, the only advice I was given was "Take these pills."
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