Hey! on Wed, 01 Sep 2004 22:26:11 +0100 that hoopy frood Paul Bromley <[log in to unmask]> said:
>I've never really been heavily involved in this before, but I've just moved
>practices and have been asked my views on this. Has anyone any advice on
>whether worthwhile, software testing equipment etc. At our last practice we
>had a visit from the haematology department and I think I recall them
>mentioning that the cheaper kits were inaccurate and expensive to run with
>strips. I know that Robert Treharne Jones here is heavily involved with
>INRStar. Any help appreciated. What are the costs of the monitoring
>equipment? I suspect that there is very little if any revenue in this -
>especially the first year. Small practice - around 60 on ACs at the moment.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Paul Bromley
We have just signed up for the anti-coagulation enhanced service. The main reason for doing this is to improve the service for our patients and to get paid for what we have been doing already. It did take a fair bit of negotiation to get to the point that the service is adequately funded, but with the new contract I was quite happy to say that we would stop providing the service if it was not properly funded and that we would write to the patients explaining why the service was being discontinued. Our PCT is now providing the test strips FOC to the practice and paying 100UKP per patient. We have approximately 100 patients who will be anticoagulated. By using the Coagucheck meter and INRstar software we can run a clinic which will be financially viable. We are still fine tuning exactly who does what, but if someone reminds me in c 3months I should have a detailed protocol. (PS anyone going to the EMIS NUG conference I would be happy to discuss (over a pint of course!)
Cheers Geoff
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Geoff Schrecker
53 Westbourne Road
Sheffield S10 2QT
http://www.glead.demon.co.uk
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