ACE sent Freedom of Information questions to all Clinical Commissioning Groups to discover exactly how they were providing services and how they were responding to change, NICE guidance etc.
Our research has demonstrated that CCGs should go further and faster to improve the quality of the anticoagulation services they commission. The key findings contained in the report are:
· Nearly half (48%) of the CCGs that responded to the audit reported not having assessed the prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in their local area
· 43% had not assessed the number of people using local anticoagulation services
· Only one third (34%) of CCGs were able to confirm that they had assessed the total cost of their local anticoagulation services
· 41% of CCGs reported not having assessed the quality of their local anticoagulation services
· Two thirds (67%) of CCGs had not taken steps to assess patient experience
· Half (50%) of CCGs had not made an assessment of the need to reconfigure services in light of recent treatment developments
The full report and the Executive Summary can be accessed at: bit.ly/1uqEswI
This is all very interesting, I have been doing my own tests only on three occasions, I am getting a reading on my Coaguchek XS which are .3 higher than the hospital test result, bur consistant in the difference, what does concern me is that I have changed my dose of Warfarin to try to achieve the recommended dose of 2.5, when I change the dose I write it on the document but the people who check the INR do not read this document and keep telling me to take a larger dose than I need, I am now wondering why we should trust them, I firmly believe in this self testing, ok my result is point 3 higher than Hospital, but this is a constant difference, I spoke to Roche in Germany and they say better trust their tester as it is very reliable, so I am doing comparison tests, why I ask do the hospital expect me to take more Warfarin than required to reach the therapeutic dose of 2.5, in the last two weeks I was advised to take 3mg but I changed it to 2.5 this gave me an INR of 3.1, now they are telling me to take the same 3mg but I am now taking 2mg, as I see it something is not right, I now expect my next result to be about 2.8 anything lower I would be happy close to 2.5, so what is wrong with the system? On the document for the Warfarin Clinic there is a place to tell them of a change, this is ignore, why? I feel this is wrong....regards.....Edd
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