Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Meds and the Presqipp podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. Today, your host Jonathan Underhill, Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP, continues the series within the Talking Meds podcast called ‘Sensible prescribing in Older people with Jonathan and Lucy.

Today Jonathan and Lucy talk about the sensible management of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. They discuss the so-called ‘Four Pillars’ of heart failure, remembering that the key is to consider what matters most to people and tailor our approach accordingly. The important words in the NICE Quality Standard on Heart Failure being ‘appropriate’ and ‘optimal’ – not simply following the protocol by rote!

The people in the big heart failure trials tend to be people aged in their 60s and men. So how do we apply this to older people or those who are women. Carefully, sensibly and by agreement is the answer...

So we meet Janet, an 86 year old lady who Lucy has seen. She lost her husband recently and misses him terribly. She is lonely and is just starting to show signs of cognitive impairment. We discuss the importance of getting to know your patients. And perhaps their beloved pet cat or dog.

See the tab for HFReEF in GP Evidence https://gpevidence.org/ to illustrate this with icon arrays.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

Show me your meds, please - Deb Gompertz

NICE Quality Standard (QS9) Chronic heart failure in adults

NICE CKS Topic Scenario: Confirmed heart failure with reduced ejection fraction

The Cinnamon Trust

The Name of the Dog
Useful related resources from PrescQIPP:

PrescQIPP bulletin 347. Chronic Heart Failure

PrescQIPP e-learning. Chronic Heart Failure in Adults (pay per use)

A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
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PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.

The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email [email protected] and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.
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