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Most people now survive a first stroke, but many patients are left with significant disability. In this article, our very own BATman 'goes through rehab' to review recently published NICE guideline. This aims to ensure that all stroke survivors have access to effective, individualised rehabilitation, both in the hospital and during long-term follow-up in the community.

NHS Health Checks now include AUDIT-C, a brief screening tool designed to help identify people who may be problem drinkers. Taking the test can be a sobering experience for patients, but now is the time to get a grip on our national relationship with alcohol.

Beta blockers are well established drugs in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, after first being introduced 20 years ago. Today, they are used to treat patients with a range of cardiovascular conditions – hypertension, myocardial infarction, angina, heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). There is good evidence for beneficial effects with beta blockers and their use is recommended in many guidelines, including the recent British Hypertension Society guidelines. Prescribing of beta blockers in patients with heart disease is further encouraged as a 'quality marker' in the new GMS contract.

Calculating cardiovascular risk is at the heart of primary prevention – it gives us a practical way of assessing who we should be targeting with lifestyle changes and drug treatment to reduce the chance of them suffering a heart attack or stroke in the future. The new Joint British Guidelines make it very clear who we should be screening for CVD and how to calculate their risk.

The Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) has announced three key actions that it wants the Government to implement in its forthcoming Childhood Obesity Strategy. The announcement comes as concern mounts over delays in publishing the Government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy.

Claire Bellone, clinical nurse specialist at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, gives her personal view on how primary healthcare professionals can work with women with menopausal symptoms and implement the recommendations of the NICE guideline on the diagnosis and management of menopause.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) was implemented in 2004 with the aim of ensuring that all patients had access to standardised, evidence-based care for their long-term condition. Points are awarded for meeting certain standards in each of these conditions and the number of points earned is translated into money that is paid to the practice. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the long-term conditions with QOF points for registering and monitoring.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) was implemented in 2004 with the aim of ensuring that all patients had access to standardised, evidence-based care for their long-term condition. Points are awarded for meeting certain standards in each of these conditions and the number of points earned is translated into money that is paid to the practice. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the long-term conditions with QOF points for registering and monitoring.

UK guidelines recommend hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as an option for untrained people, or when ventilation is difficult. But standard CPR with ventilation remains best practice, and it is vital to ensure that everyone in the practice knows how to use basic life support to save a patient's life after cardiac arrest.