New Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic Referral Form for Chesterfield Royal Hospital

A new Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic referral form has been launched for Chesterfield Royal Hospital on the Derbyshire Pathfinder referral system.  The form can be accessed via the Derbyshire Pathfinder home screen > Cardiology > Rapid Access Chest Pain

The service was originally designed to provide a fast track service to manage chest pain with a high likelihood of coronary heart disease.

Waiting times for this clinic have increased due to the overall NHS position and we have redesigned the referral to be more consistent with NICE guidelines and contemporary practice.  Patients with and without a history of CHD can now be referred if they have symptom suggestive of angina.  The referral form includes a simple three question [Yes/No] tool to help prioritise patients in accordance with NICE CG95 and is similar to the criteria used by other surrounding hospitals.

 Criteria Led Prioritisation

Patients who have typical symptoms (3/3 criteria) will be assigned to the RACPC, those with atypical symptoms (2/3 criteria) will be assigned to general cardiology clinics and all others will be evaluated on an individual basis.  Those without typical or atypical symptoms (≤1/3 criteria) are categorised as non-cardiac sounding chest pain and should not be referred to RACPC.  An alternative diagnosis should be considered and if a cardiac cause remains suspected then referral to the general cardiology clinic using the same Pathfinder referral system is recommended.