1st Edition

The Problem-Based Learning Workbook Medicine and Surgery

By Tim French, Terry Wardle Copyright 2006

    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.

    A student with a ‘hangover’. A woman found slumped in a chair by her husband. A worrying lump. A busy haematuria clinic. A wheezy student. An unrousable patient in the recovery room. A lawyer with a drink problem. A junior SHO’s experience on the surgical admission unit. A diabetic patient with a leg ulcer. A lorry driver with chest pain. A teacher with intermittent rectal bleeding. A pensioner with ‘waterworks’ problems. A woman found on the floor by her warden. A 32-year old with pain and urinary frequency. An overweight patient with epigastric pain. A history of blackouts. A problem swallowing. A motorcycle accident. An Asian woman with blurred vision. A patient with calf pain. A 19-year old with a 3 week history of diarrhea. An immigrant from Thailand with a cough. An anxious insomniac. A lady with abdominal cramps. An unsteady pensioner. A diabetic with diarrhea. A builder with back pain. A breathless pensioner. High blood pressure. Tired all the time.

    Biography

    Tim French House Officer, Countess of Chester Hospital; Professor of Clinical Science, Chester University and Clinical Sub-Dean, Terry Wardle Liverpool Medical School