"The cardiology service at Southern District Health Board is obviously in a vulnerable state if the DHB is being forced to consider sending cardiac MRI patients to private hospitals," says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). He was commenting on an article in the Otago Daily Times that the DHB was considering such a move as it faced the prospect of losing the second of two specially trained cardiologists. "This is in direct response to the shortage of specialist cardiologists brought to a head by the departure of two cardiologists. It is part of wider shortages of specialists in our public hospitals. "The net result is to have to spend extra money on using private hospitals. Specialist shortages are financially wasteful." Its not the first time that the ASMS has raised concerns about the DHBs cardiology workforce. In April last year the ASMS wrote to Southern DHB to express concern about the lack of adequate specialist staffing for echocardiology. "Until we have a strategy to address our entrenched specialist shortages in public hospitals these sorts of risks to patient care and financial wastage are going to continue." Read more from the original source: Shortages … Continue reading →

Patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing angioplasty who received the anticoagulant drug bivalirudin did not show significant improvements in either of two co-primary endpoints--a composite of rate of death, heart attack or stroke at 30 days, or a composite of those events plus major bleeding--as compared to patients receiving standard anticoagulation therapy, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. However, bivalirudin was associated with significantly lower rates of bleeding complications and death, two of the study's secondary endpoints. Study authors said the reason the study did not meet its co-primary composite endpoints is likely related to the high prevalence of heart attacks, which occurred in about 8.5 percent of patients in both groups and likely diluted the benefits reflected in the rates of death and bleeding. In addition, the study had a higher-than-usual bar for statistical significance due to its inclusion of two co-primary endpoints instead of only one. Patients in the control group were given the widely used anticoagulant unfractionated heparin, as well as glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, another class of anticoagulants, at the physician's discretion. "We saw an impressive reduction in bleeding with bivalirudin compared to the control, which likely contributed … Continue reading →

Entrenched specialist shortages affect southern DHB cardiology service The cardiology service at Southern District Health Board is obviously in a vulnerable state if the DHB is being forced to consider sending cardiac MRI patients to private hospitals, says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). He was commenting on an article in the Otago Daily Times that the DHB was considering such a move as it faced the prospect of losing the second of two specially trained cardiologists: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/336328/cardiac-mris-maybe-done-privately. This is in direct response to the shortage of specialist cardiologists brought to a head by the departure of two cardiologists. It is part of wider shortages of specialists in our public hospitals. The net result is to have to spend extra money on using private hospitals. Specialist shortages are financially wasteful. Its not the first time that the ASMS has raised concerns about the DHBs cardiology workforce. In April last year the ASMS wrote to Southern DHB to express concern about the lack of adequate specialist staffing for echocardiology. Until we have a strategy to address our entrenched specialist shortages in public hospitals these sorts of risks to patient care and financial wastage are going … Continue reading →