ABSTRACT

General practitioners need to know more and more about the complicated tests performed in hospitals. For most patients the GP is an accessible trusted and reliable source of information and advice. So when patients under hospital follow-up are confused about their treatment they often turn to their GP. In addition general practitioners have open access to an increasing array of hospital-based investigations and in the context of clinical governance they have a greater responsibility to understand and use them properly. This guide provides a compendium of all those hospital-based tests which the GP is likely to encounter organised according to specialty. It also includes the rather more specialised tests available only to the relevant consultant but which GPs might end up having to explain to perplexed patients. Each chapter is written by a specialist in the field and the book is edited by a general practitioner to be presented in a uniform digestible way. This essential resource enables GPs to order secondary care investigations confidently and rationally and to answer patients' queries with authority.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter |2 pages

Key cases index

part |225 pages

The scenarios

chapter |8 pages

A student with a ‘hangover’

chapter 2|8 pages

A woman found slumped in a chair

chapter 3|12 pages

A worrying lump

chapter 4|8 pages

A busy haematuria clinic

chapter 5|4 pages

A wheezy student

chapter 7|9 pages

A lawyer with a drink problem

chapter 9|9 pages

A diabetic patient with a leg ulcer

chapter 10|6 pages

A lorry driver with chest pain

chapter 12|7 pages

A pensioner with ‘waterworks’ problems

chapter 13|9 pages

A pensioner with ‘waterworks’ problems

chapter 15|7 pages

An overweight patient with epigastric pain

chapter 16|6 pages

A history of blackouts

chapter 17|6 pages

A problem swallowing

chapter 18|6 pages

A motorcycle accident

chapter 19|8 pages

An Asian woman with blurred vision

chapter 20|8 pages

A patient with calf pain

chapter 22|6 pages

An immigrant from Thailand with a cough

chapter 23|6 pages

An anxious insomniac

chapter 24|6 pages

A lady with abdominal cramps

chapter 25|10 pages

An unsteady pensioner

chapter 26|6 pages

A diabetic with diarrhoea

chapter 27|7 pages

A builder with back pain

chapter 28|6 pages

A breathless pensioner

chapter 29|8 pages

A patient with high blood pressure

chapter 30|7 pages

A tired old lady