It’s been two weeks since my A&E shenanigans which means by now I should’ve heard from the cardiology clinic about a rapid access appointment – but I haven’t. I’m discharged from acute care, not in specialist follow-up and not yet back to primary care for GP responsibility – I’m in a healthcare vacuum.  Not only that, but the beta-blockers prescribed in A&E would have run out by now if I was taking them (that’s right, the pharmacist who bangs on about the importance of medicines adherence is not adherent to his medicines…blog obviously to follow on that).

So given I’ve not had any further episodes and I’m back to running 5 miles most days is this a problem? Individually maybe not, but from a systems point of view it is. We know pathways can be porous and leaky but it’s in our interests to have them plugged: if I was an average AF punter with a CHA₂DS₂VASc score above zero what would I do next? Try and book a GP appointment, pay A&E another visit or do nothing and play my chances of having a stroke?

Or would I pop to the pharmacy to talk to the person who dispensed my beta-blockers and (hopefully) talked me through them and what to expect? If I did, and that pharmacist was you, what would you do to help me?

Feel free to leave your answer as a comment below…

Photo: The Lonely Vacuum Of Space (JD Hancock) / CC BY 3.0