I see in The Times today that Exeter Hospital have produced, under the NHS auspices, a Home Diagnostic kit that will test, among other things like Vitamin D and cholesterol, thyroid factors, whatever they are. The article states that this is by definition a superior approach because the private tests are "unregulated" (as if unregulated = inaccurate - that is the snide implication). I don't know what thyroid function tests are being offered but I'll bet it's TSH only. Medical GP's can see the dangers in all this of being buried by the "worried well" but it could be useful to detect early signs of incipient hypothyroidism (if we can alter the present day thinking about subclinical hypothyroidism and no-action until TSH = 10 mentality). I'm not holding my breath, because in reality it might further solidify the current dogma in this regard, rather than act as a precursor for change.
NHS rival to Medichecks: I see in The Times today... - Thyroid UK
NHS rival to Medichecks
Interesting. That's the Endocrinology unit I attend ... following April's appointment, I sent the endocrinologist my comprehensive Medichecks and Regenerous test results, which up till now have been largely dismissed in a face to face environment. I also included a copy of your recently published BMC research paper ... I have referenced you and Doctor Toft on more than one occasion while airing frustration at NHS reliance on THS testing only. My GP has changed her stance, lending me far more support since reading your work. Could the same be said for Exeter - I hope the value of full panel Thyroid testing, including autoimmune antibodies, vitamins, inflammation and cholesterol, has been fully recognised. I will be requesting Exeter tests if that's the case. Thank you diogenes for bringing this article to my attention.
Maybe they hope that more and more people will pay privately for blood tests to save the NHS money!!!
I think it’s a step in the the direction which promotes the idea of health as the responsibility of the individual. Of course there will be the medical fraternity naysayers.. as always. And the claim that these tests will be more ‘pukka’ than the likes of Medichecks is transparently sales talk.
I don't think I'd trust the NHS to give me what I paid for (although the Birmingham vit D kit has been fine) - they'd probably refuse to do thyroid hormones if TSH was "normal"
Is this another way of privatising the NHS via the back door? Tell patients that thyroid won't be tested because they don't have the "right" symptoms but if the patient is worried they can pay for their own tests?
The cynic in me wonders whether members of the public might pay for a full thyroid panel, including T3 and antibodies, and still have the lab write back and say "no need to test anything but T4 and TSH" 😆
I'd consider giving it a go to be fair, because our doctors can't dispute the results. BUT it might not be long before doctors tell us to pay for tests privately to save the NHS some cash...
As a non-subscriber, I can see the following:
NHS looks to cash in on worried patients with £24 blood-test kits
The NHS has entered the market to sell consumer blood tests that look for signs of serious illness in a controversial moneyspinning venture.
A leading hospital laboratory hopes that online shoppers will pay from £24 for tests that can prevent disease by assessing people’s risk of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. But GPs fear it will lead to an influx of the worried well to overstretched surgeries and insist that “curiosity is simply not a good enough reason for medical testing”.
There was a similar debate this year over government plans for the NHS to sequence the entire genetic code of healthy paying customers to amass DNA data.
thetimes.co.uk/article/nhs-...
As a subscriber, here is another important part:
The Monitor My Health service advertises itself as “By the NHS. For the NHS” and offers tests for diabetes, vitamin D levels, cholesterol and thyroid problems. Dr McDonald acknowledged fears among doctors that testing healthy people with no symptoms would flag up harmless abnormalities and lead to needless treatment and extra pressure on the NHS. “We think it’s not a risk because our advice is very reassuring when it’s normal,” he said. “If it’s appropriate we’d say, ‘Go to the GP’ and in the long term we should cause less intensive medication because you’re picking things up early.”
I like how they refer to us as the worried well...
If we felt "well" we wouldn't be doing any tests.
And if we feel well but just want to monitor some levels in the long term, then we'll be turning to the NHS only when something is out of range, in which case, we're not "well".
Worried well don't have abnormal blood tests to prove they're worrying unnecessarily.
Interestingly, I bumped into the Exeter services yesterday when I was looking for something on c-peptide testing. They're doing a c-pep test for £29 it appears. Bearing in mind that many, many people with diabetes of an ambiguous nature are denied the c-peptide on the basis of costs, I was astonished how modestly priced it is - especially as this service will be designed to be, at the very worst, break even.
Thank you. The tortuous process in place locally for obtaining a blood test request form then an appointment, then the results of the test from the nhs spans three working days. I wonder how much this costs the nhs? It’s certainly very costly in terms of lost patient working time. Why? Why? Why? There is no customer service.
I've looked up the site, and this is the thyroid test:
monitormyhealth.org.uk/thyr...
Only one test is offered: TSH, T4 and T3. It's telling, because if we really only needed to test T4 and TSH, then surely that's the only test they'd offer. They understand thyroid disease better, and also completely don't, all at the same time!
If the tests do TSH, total T4 and T3 it's better than it might have been. People with very abnormal thyroid hormone ransport protein levels will get into trouble however. What's missing is the interpretation of the test results, especially on therapy. If the old assumption holds that TSH unmeasurable is necessarily bad, we shan't get far.
The NHS can talk, a lot of their blood tests are seriously flawed...... and on the TSH being under 10 I saw yesterday that a doctor had written to a patient acting on the BMJ article saying the TSH had to be over 20 now,, God help everyone if most have read that,, The thing is the article they wrote in BMJ they had not given all the info from trial on it, its also not guidelines its an article but seems GPs are acting on it,, I will try find the post on what the GP wrote to the patient not sure I can post a photo on your post though, I will have a try though
Hi
I started feeling ill iA few blood tests later I was put on levothyroxine 25mg
This was the post I saw yesterday , they had only recently been put on Levo small dose ..
"Dear ++++
Your recent tests showed roughly the same level of TSH (6.60) which is slightly high. Your T4 was normal.
The previous guidance for 'subclinical hypothyroidism' in non-pregnant women was to only consider treatment in symptomatic people if the TSH was above 10. Now that guidance has been updated further and some specialist advised against treatment until TSH is >20 or other conditions apply:
patient.info/doctor/Subclin...
Some people will go on to develop overt hypothyroidism, especially if there are auto-antibodies in your system. I will arrange for this to be checked- please collect a form from reception.
For now I would not suggest ongoing treatment with thyroxine, but do the repeat tests with the antibodies- it is probably best to do in 3-6 months time.
However do get in touch earlier if your symptoms change/worsen.
Kind Regards,
Dr
"
In case anyone is considering using this option, I enquired as to biotin interference. Their response:
In common with many immunoassay test systems the TSH, Free T4 and Free T3 may exhibit some interference at extremely high levels of biotin. Typically this would occur if the blood sample was taken shortly following taking biotin supplement.
I am rather taken by the definitions of "extremely high" and "shortly".
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