Heart disease, audit of quality of care

Facts & Figures Contents

Age Profile
Atrial Fibrillation
Chronic Diseases
Flu immunisation
Heart Disease
Mortality
Strokes & TIAs
Workload

For several years we have been monitoring the standard of treatment of our patients with angina and of those who have previously had heart attacks.

It is important to identify those with a high cholesterol level and offer them dietary advice and if necessary prescribe "lipid lowering drugs" to reduce the chance of progression of their heart disease.

Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attacks, so everyone with heart disease should be on it unless there is a medical reason why it would be harmful.

The results are given separately for the under 70s and those aged 70 or more.

C/I means that aspirin is contraindicated ( there is a medical reason for not prescribing it). Cholesterol should have been checked within the previous three years.

Under 70s

graph showing results of audit of care of those with ischaemic heart disease, the percentage of those treated with aspirin or on cholesterol pills has increased dramatically since 2002

70 or over

a graph of those aged 70 or more showing the percentage of those with ischaemic heart disease who are on aspirin, or choleterol lowering tablets or who have had their cholesterol checked. There has been a very dramatic improvement between 2002 and 2005

There has been a dramatic improvement in the standard of care since 2002. This is partly due to us having a trained nurse to see those with heart disease. We have used an online form on the computer to remind us to complete all the right checks when we see someone. In 2004 the new General Practice Contract gave an even greater impetus to improve care.

In addition new evidence has appeared as a result of further trials of treatment for raised cholesterol that shows that those over 75 benefit from drugs for high cholesterol (statins). Before this there was no proven benefit for treatment of this age group.

home	staff	practice information	facts and figures	search
self help	contacts	services and clinics	keeping healthy	site map