One in five older patients needing a GP action after discharge met an error in the handover

The edition in brief

A BJGP review of 263 patients aged 65 or over discharged to seven West Midlands practices found 551 actions requested in 160 discharge summaries; among patients needing an action, 20.6% experienced an error — usually a requested action not done — and 4.4% came to harm. Most harms ended in readmission, three in eight were judged preventable in primary care, and errors and harms fell disproportionately on patients with dementia or a carer. An American Family Physician review sets out a structured approach to ear pain, separating primary otalgia from pain referred from the jaw, teeth and neck, and stresses persistent, severe or one-sided symptoms as red flags. A Chinese study in Annals of Family Medicine found AI super-resolution processing of handheld ultrasound images raised carotid plaque detection in community screening from 87.6% to 94.8% and improved stenosis grading. A Turkish follow-up of older adults who had attended a smoking cessation clinic found that four in five of those still smoking years later wanted help with another attempt.