Doctors failing to spot two thirds of pneumonia cases

EVERY two in three cases of pneumonia are being missed each year because GPS fail to carry out simple tests, experts have warned.

Research shows that the four measures available to family doctors – checking for fever, high pulse rate, crackly breath sounds and low oxygen levels – should identify far more cases of the condition which is responsible for up to 50,000 deaths a year.

The study carried out by the University of Southampton found that the combined technique spotted more than eight in every 10 cases of pneumonia, ensuring that antibiotics were better targeted.

GPS who made the four checks were far better able to distinguish the lifethreatening lung condition from less serious chest infections that would clear up of their own accord.

Pneumonia makes it difficult for patients to breathe and often requires treatment with antibiotics, but it is difficult to isolate it from more common viral infections, against which the drugs are ineffective.

Prof Michael Moore, the study leader, said that around one in 20 of the patients seen by GPS were suffering from pneumonia. “GPS see a huge number of patients with symptoms of a lower respiratory tract infection such as coughing, phlegm, wheezing and being short of breath,” he said.

Most would have a viral infection, which does not require antibiotics, but it is “notoriously difficult” to tell one type of infection from another, he said.

“GPS fail to spot two out of every three cases of pneumonia, although those that are missed are the milder ones with less distinctive features. One of the reasons why GPS offer antibiotics is that they are rightly concerned about missing a serious illness.”

The study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, analysed 28,883 patients who exhibited signs of an infection in the lungs and had visited GPS at 5,222 surgeries in the UK.