Just received an e-mail with details of Blue Horizon 'Lifetime Members Club' with VIP20, VIP30, VIP40 & VIP50 at a cost of £400, £1,000, £2,000 and £4,000 respectively. The last two are limited to jsut a few 'members'!
My personal view is that we should be wary of these offers. Blue Horizon often have discount offers. There is no guarantee that they will not increase their prices in the future with offers being standard practice.
Whilst I find their service easy and efficient we should bear in mind that they currently charge patients £109.15 for an assay of TSH, fT3, fT4 (+ antibodies) whereas they charge NW London hospitals £2-74 for a TSH, fT3, fT4 assay.
It may be better to avoid membership schemes so that you are free to seek out best value.
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jimh111
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Whilst I find their service easy and efficient we should bear in mind that they currently charge patients £109.15 for an assay of TSH, fT3, fT4 (+ antibodies)
Where do you get that price from? Fingerprick version is £69 normal price:
I should have mentioned this is the price for venipuncture where you go to their clinic in London and they take the blood. I prefer this because I can't be bothered to do the finger prick test and their clinic is handy for me and near to a very nice patteserie.
Details are here bloodtestslondon.com/ . They are part of the Blue Horizons group. These tests are more expensive than the finger prick tests, I prefer this option and can afford it. Since it is the same lab as used by my local GP surgeries and hospitals the doctors can’t diss it. In fact then tend to perk up and say ‘that’s the same lab as we use’.
If anyone is told their Blue Horizon blood test isn’t accepted by their doctor they could always point out it’s done by the lab that most hospitals in SE England use.
These companies charge what they can get away with. I could understand it costing £20 or £30 to allow for running the clinic, taking the blood etc. but they exploit patients. The prices have been drifting up. I suspect they will change to a model whereby the recommended price is raised and 'special offers' become more common. Not very ethical behaviour for healthcare.
My TSH went very low because I needed high doses of thyroid hormone. Once I sorted that out my TSH stayed low because my 'axis' was down-regulated. The hypothalamic pituitary thyroid axis (basicially how much TSH you produce for given fT3, fT4 levels) can become down-regulated if there is a sustained period of hyperthyroidism, depression, severe illness or very low calorie diet. I call this 'subnormal TSH secretion' to distinguish it from central hypothyroidsm which is more severe and usually accompanied with other hormone deficiencies and damage to the pituitary.
I believe subnormal TSH secretion has unexpected consequences because it reduces conversion of T4 to T3 especially in the brain. I will be adding a section on fibromyalgia to my website this summer showing the links between hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia and IBS. In your case I would recommend you get your TSH, fT3 and fT4 measured to see if TSH, fT3 and fT4 are all low normal which would suggest subnormal TSH secretion.
The free market doesn't recognise ethics, only unfettered greed.
Wow, thanks so much for the info. I resented how the Endo's shook their heads but didn't bother engaging their brains to investigate my below range TSH. I have fibromyalgia and brain fog is a persistent symptom.
I will aim to get the relevant tests on the NHS, as we are ALL entitled to. Though my first step is to focus on what diet/supplements I can take to improve my health. Principally I want to limit my interaction with any medical professional.
As an aside virtually every doctor has sensed a thyroid issue with me, and ordered a thyroid tests. Unfortunately, they're incomplete so they write it off and use the catch all of FM instead.
I top up with £10 very occasionally and set a reminder to use my mobile once every six months so that the number doesn't expire. I use WiFi, but a coffee and get free WiFi. I've never been offered free unlimited coffee with any mobile telephone contract.
I'm pretty shocked by the prices, too! In the email they mention some of their customers are regular high users. I assumed I would be included in that category as I buy a thyroid panel every 6 weeks, vitamins once a year, and a handful of other things throughout the year.
With a back of the envelope super rough calculation it would take me about 5 years to break even on cheapest scheme, and 8-10 years to break even on the 50% discount scheme! That's before I even see any discounts!
I'm not too happy to gamble that Blue Horizon will still exist in that many years, and maybe not even that I will My hope would be that I'll be a lot less sick by then and won't be taking such regular blood tests!
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My hope would be that I'll be a lot less sick by then and won't be taking such regular blood tests! 
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