The study aims to quantify the volume and range of pediatric cardiology referrals to better understand the increasing demand and implications for resource allocation.
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Rising referrals for pediatric cardiac symptoms may reflect nonspecialist reluctance; leaves open whether education or guidelines could optimize patterns.
In Northern Ireland, approximately 200 babies per year are born with congenital heart disease. Although the incidence of congenital heart disease and other pediatric cardiac pathology remains largely static, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the number of referrals for specialist assessment continues to increase. The general impression is that nonspecialists are increasingly reluctant to provide reassurance or take responsibility for patients presenting with symptoms of possible cardiac etiology, and such increased demand has obvious implications for allocation of limited resources.1-4 We aimed to determine the volume and range of outpatient referrals to tertiary pediatric cardiology services.
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Morrison et al. (2016) studied this question.
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