Cost of HBA1c and GTT tests.

[catherinecherub]

People are often denied these tests on the grounds of cost.

This NICE document puts the cost of an HBA1c test at £4.04 and a GTT test at £7.48 Nearly a year on it has probably risen slightly. It is not a document just dealing with these costs but it is there for anyone to see.
http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/1 ... /56812.pdf

 

[catza]

Thanks for the link Catherine, I have a feeling it may come in useful when I try to get HbA1c tests other than yearly. :thumbup:

 

[noblehead]

Just £4.04 for a Hba1c test......

Great link Catherine!

 

[))Denise((]

I suppose you have to factor in the nurses time to take the blood. I asked for an interim HbA1c and got told there wasn't any clinical need

 

[noblehead]

I suppose you have to factor in the nurses time to take the blood. I asked for an interim HbA1c and got told there wasn't any clinical need

Strange that and goes to show how care does vary, my clinic will do an interim Hba1c if I ask but it has to be 12 weeks after the last one was taken.

btw, I'm type 1 but can't really see what difference this would make!

 

[sallylondon]

Our surgery/nurse does not take blood tests from anyone any more but sends you to the local Lambeth Health Centre a mile away where you just have to queue up until you are seen. Twenty people before me last time I turned up

 

[paragliderpete]

My surgery no longer supplies the Glucose for the glucose tolerence test. We have to use 500ml of lucozade. We can get it from the surgery coffee shop at £2.50 per bottle.

 

[Paul1976]

My surgery no longer supplies the Glucose for the glucose tolerence test. We have to use 500ml of lucozade. We can get it from the surgery coffee shop at £2.50 per bottle.

:shock: :shock: :shock: How much!!!! :shock: :shock: Tesco's is FAR cheaper than that,you could probably get a 6 pack of 380ml bottles for a similar price.It just goes to show what mark up some places do! :roll:

 

[paragliderpete]

Yes I know. We got caught because they didn't tell us until we arrived for the test. We had a choice pay the price or make a new appointment which would have meant a three week delay. It's all one big con. We won't be caught again.

 

[Paul1976]

Crikey pete! They REALLY were crafty with that one eh?..Still though,imagine the look on their faces if you repeat the test and turn up with your own supply of Lucozade! Priceless!

 

[Unbeliever]

When I had my recent fasting cholesterol test they also did an HBA1C just 5 weeks after my previous HbA!C for my annual review.

I am supposed to have 3 monthly HBA1Cs as requesed by the hospital consultant but there is always a fuss abiout it.
The dr agreed i should have them but when I tried to make the appt they only grudgingly and after much discussion allowed me to book the fasting cholesterol test the Dr had ordered. They said i would have ot book any other test later . I fully intended to ask the Dr about it again. I was a little surprised to have two phials of blood taken but it was only afterwards i was told one of them had been another HBA1C, I can only assume this was for their convenience !
If I didn't know why they were taking the blood for the HBA1C and wouldnt have consented if I had known is this technically assault?
When I ooked the cholesterol test and attemted to book the HBA1C I made a point of stressing it should be 3 months after the previous HBA1C.

 

[xyzzy]

Catherine that may well be one of the most empowering bits of info anyone's posted - thanks!

 

[jopar]

Sometimes it's not the individual cost of the test it's the volume being tested that stretches budgets...

So understand sometimes constraints are placed to ensure that the volume doesn't break budgets, but with saying that a balance needs to be made, where people are getting quality testing, so testing HbA1'c within weeks of the last one, probably a reasonable waste of money, but every 3 months give quality information...

And the big question, is that just the cost of the physical test of actually testing the blood, all does it include all the other costs involved, staff time, admin, transportation etc!

 

[mrawfell]

I no longer live in the UK I have retired in the Philippines. ( No more heating bills ! ) However medical attention is all paid for. If my doctor wants a specific test, I have a choice, pay or do without. This is my life so I just pay for the HBa1C test, and the test strips.

 

[Unbeliever]

Catherinecherub is an invaluable researcher and always has been , the forum would be the poorer for her absence.

The surgery nearest to my home is a rural branch surgery with the main branch a couple of miles away.

Not only do they receive money for me as a diabeic but they also receive extra payments for because it is a rural practice.
I think it is quite lucrative. Although it is only open until noon there are usuallly nurses sitting waiting for a sudden emergency or accciden because hey have little to do. There is a separate blood clinic held ther 2 or 3 times a week. There again they only see a few patients per mornng . This is not a guess but what they have told me.
Pesumably they are paid for just holding the clinic.

In any event cost can't be he problem. The drs have no problem at all with my having 3 monthly HBA1Cs. Its the NURSES.

In some places I can well imagine that there may be difficulties. Maybe insufficient staff and difficulies with organisation and transport as mentioned. There may be restrictions elsewhere in the labs etc.

I do get the strong impression however that it is connected with the position of he nurses and their allowances. hThey seem to want to "take ownership of the dibetes" patients .

This probably has to do with budgets and accoiunting for the work they do. hey would not then like patients to have HBA1cs unless the est could be liked to a clinic so that they could claim it as something they did. By the same token they would not want patients to be seen to be having more HBA1Cs than the absolute minimum because his would indicate some lack of control or profiglacy in their spending.

I am sure it must be something of this kind and will ask the doctor when I see her shortly. None of this helps he paitient.
Now we not only have a situation where the GPs and hospitals can't seem to cooperate because they are competing for the same money but within Pracices certain nurses feel they are competing with the Drs regarding paient treatment.

And who loses out ? he patient of course. I hink this is the only possible explanation for nurss trying o override Drs instructions.
I am sure that the problems experienced by others also have a similar explanation.

Drs aren't bothered about tests because they acually cost very little as percatherine's link but nurses are perhaps jusdged by different criteria or have to account for these tests in their budgets even when ordered by the Dr. Hmmm

What a paklaver.

 

[ladybird64]

Our surgery/nurse does not take blood tests from anyone any more but sends you to the local Lambeth Health Centre a mile away where you just have to queue up until you are seen. Twenty people before me last time I turned up

This sounds rather familiar..you aren't talking about the centre in Streatham are you? If so, been there and got the t-shirt! :roll:

 

[SAH154]

I seem to be in some kind of unusual situation where as I've had 3 separate HBA1C tests this month alone! All for different NHS trusts - I have at least 1 per month which maybe standard to keep an eye on the transplanted organ and early signs that things may not be what they seem?

Last weeks result was 31/5%

 

[Defren]

I read through this and I find it all so sad, that many have to fight to get HbA1c tests. My surgery is a rural one, yet I know I will have the test every three - four months, my GP has assured me of that. Why there is this awful postcode lottery I will never know, but I am SO lucky to live where I do in terms of my diabetes, treatment and care.