Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The NHS Health Checks programme could be costing more than twice as much as an opportunistic approach to diagnosing people with conditions such as hypertension, leaving GPs out of pocket, research has suggested.
A team from the University of Exeter found it cost one practice nearly £550 for each new diagnosis of hypertension through an NHS Health Checks clinic, when it could have cost them less than £230 through opportunistic testing.
Dr David Clark, a GP in Devon and a clinical academic at the university, who led the research, said the high costs associated with running the Health Checks clinics also meant the practice was running the service at a loss.
GP cardiology experts said the results showed an opportunistic approach to screening would be more cost-effective than the blanket, age-based screening approach used in the NHS Health Checks programme and urged Public Health England to rethink the policy.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinica...unistic-testing/20007086.article#.U7sKk_ldWAg
(free registration required)
A team from the University of Exeter found it cost one practice nearly £550 for each new diagnosis of hypertension through an NHS Health Checks clinic, when it could have cost them less than £230 through opportunistic testing.
Dr David Clark, a GP in Devon and a clinical academic at the university, who led the research, said the high costs associated with running the Health Checks clinics also meant the practice was running the service at a loss.
GP cardiology experts said the results showed an opportunistic approach to screening would be more cost-effective than the blanket, age-based screening approach used in the NHS Health Checks programme and urged Public Health England to rethink the policy.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinica...unistic-testing/20007086.article#.U7sKk_ldWAg
(free registration required)
