This is self-explanatory.
newstatesman.com/politics/s...
I would like to know how much the NHS pay out for blood tests for thyroid hormones?
I would like to know how much the 'extras' needed to give to under-dosed patients who have hypothyroidism for their remaining clinical symptoms cost?
I would like to know how much the 'extras' needed to give to under-dosed patients who have hypothyroidism for their remaining clinical symptoms cost?
I remember a member on this forum said she was on meds. for her constipation, cream for her eczema, something for her indigestion, pain meds. for her aches and pains etc. whilst she was kept under treated for her hypothyroidism. Once she starting self treating and got her levels optimal she did not need all this other medications because all her symptoms improved.
When my doctor reduced my levo. because of my low TSH I told her about this member and said just think how much money the NHS saved because she did not now need these other meds. her reply was, "I do think endocrinology needs a good overhaul but it will take about another ten years for this to happen". She still went on to reduce my levo. as she said she could not risk losing her licence.
Did she not enquire how you were doing on your dose. It is ridiculous to reduce instead of asking patient how he/she was feeling.
I went back and told her I felt worse but she would not increase my dose, this is when she said she could not risk losing her licence as she had to stick to the guidelines, instead she said she would write to an endo. for advice.
Six weeks later I got a phone call to say she had received a reply from the endo. who said she could increase my dose as he did not worry too much about TSH as long as T4 did not go above 18 .(why 18 I do not know)
Before the reduction my T4 was 14 range 8 - 21. Dropped to 11 after reduction.
By this time I had started self treating with NDT as I was so fed up of it all.
In hindsight I should have purchased extra levo. or added T3 to the levo. as I have not felt the well being a lot of members get with NDT.
Seen another Doctor now at the practise who has now said he will treat by symptoms and not numbers, so thinking of going back to levo.
Give levo another try and I am not sure how many manufacturers of levo there are in the UK so if one doesn't suit try another.
We are always wise after hindsight 
It is a struggle when we cannot improve and our health is worse with more clinical symptoms.
At least your doctor is willing to treat his patient and not the blood test results. That's great.
Best wishes for your next step.
Thyroid tests are the cheapest ones worldwide. It's not an excuse to refuse testing. My GP confirmed it's cheapest tests.
And I believe it. Over here in Finland you get TSH and ft4 starting from 10 euros privately so can't cost more in public health care. Especially if hospital has it own lab which they usually do as thyroid is tested in any hospital that has ER. I get my results back in an hour from my local shi*ty hell hole so they have equipment for it.
That's amazing - one hour's turnaround for results.
One hour is the quickest I have seen, but thyroid tests are always ready and updated online in the same day.
We will probably all be emigrating to Finland
well some things certainly work well even in the small local hospitals. For example when you go to lab to get thyroid tested and sign in you are asked have you fasted or taken your meds.
If you haven't fasted or have taken your thyroid meds they simply refuse to do the test. You are rescheduled.
Since the training was upgraded most nurses at the lab are lab technicians they do not only draw the blood they also analyse it. So they are familiar with thyroid function and know more about it than most doctors!
I've had thyroid tests while hospitalised or in for the day with similar speeds in the UK. Consultants order it on a specific fast system. If it's a case of freeing up a hospital bed that day it's obviously worth it 
I seem to recall the cost to the NHS in the UK was £3.50.
It might well have been. The problem is that the original company sold on to another, price increase and then this happened a number of times but the last price of £300 is beyond belief. The NHS or whoever is responsible for the pricing of products should have dealt with this vast increase and told them in no uncertain terms to reduce their price.
As it is the only licenced T3 I suppose the owners had the upper hand. There are other T3s but unlicenced but could be prescribed on a 'named-patient basis' but doctors unwilling to do so.
I've read that many medicines have suffered that fate when there is a 'buy-out' and the company is only interested in increasing prices of medicines.
I should've been clearer, replying to Justiina: £3.50 for the TSH test. But that wouldn't take into account the cost of the phlebotomist, nor even booking the test.
At least she admits it was Labour who started it ( calling it "new" does not wash) the same is true of PFI contracts ( Labour started and Tories extended) which has led to a proposal to close A&E in our University town hospital,reduce beds from 400 beds to 64 and to move services miles away to a PFI hospital ( with minimal parking and along a regularly choked road network) which needs the service to pay the massive interest to whoever now owns the debt.
Abbott focuses in one issue of many that affect the NHS .The greedy big and small pharmas are also supplying new drugs that reduce hospital time and costs. Not that this excuses tax hideaways which are used by many companies not just pharma.It has been a failure of governments of all colours that this has not been tackled.
In 1955-6 Healthcare was 11.2 % of public spending ,in2015-16 it was 29.7% and there was a £1.85bn deficit.More than a tenth of acute specialist hospitals are rated inadequate for safety and waiting lists are increasing.
When Brown increased spend by 10% there was only a 2% increse in productivity.Staff costs are the largest expenditure .The largest NHS recruiter is in house and has recently turned a profit so the Govt. plans to flog it!
On the other hand using Spire etc has proved effective. A Cambridge Trust has outsourced radiology diagnostics and found the service much improved.The radiologists work days and nights so there is a quicker turnround.
Around 9000 GP practices are considered unfit for purpose so expect more consolidation and more facilities to reduce demand on hospitals.
The NHS supply of small equipment and stationary used to be in house but was sold to Deutsche Post but many Trusts will not use it and waste money by separate ordering .
Big Pharma will never put their profits into the NHS, unless they expect to get more back than they put in. Private companies give their profits to their shareholders. One can imagine shareholders wanting to know why the company they invested in is giving it away to non-investors for free.
I agree and this is an excerpt from an earlier post:-
Other large multinational corporations contracted by the NHS to provide care to the British public such as Spire Healthcare, BPL, Circle Health, Care UK, Ramsay Health and Virgin have similarly used paper companies in tax havens to avoid paying UK tax (Spire nevertheless did pay £141.8m, on turnover of £884.4m, in 2015).
The same is true of the pharmaceutical giants. Despite making sales of between £1.3bn and £1.8bn each year between 2001 and 2014, the US firm Pfizer paid almost no tax over the period because it announced major operating losses each year, except for a relatively tiny profit of £9m in 2013.
Reference ranges
Private prescriptions from NHS GPs - and referring outside of CCG area - advice please
T3 stopped due to cost: where to buy privately? and why is NHS being charged so high a price? does this need investigating?
On liothyronine only and consultant says may discontinue nhs prescriptions . What do I do. Frightened to be honest 
Still struggling with Hashimoto’s - can anyone help with sourcing T3 or NDT?
