Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the feasibility of making coagulometers available for loan to patients self-testing International Normalised Ratio levels on the same basis that blood glucose testing meters are available free to diabetics through the NHS.

It is important that patients on warfarin have regular blood tests to monitor their International Normalised Ratio levels. Patients can be tested in their general practice (GP) surgery or hospital anticoagulant clinic. The Department has not made an assessment of how best to provide coagulometers as the decision on how best to run and fund testing is a local decision. Self-testing is possible if the clinician was confident of the results and if the GP or anticoagulant clinic chose to fund the testing in this way. We are not aware of patients being asked to pay for a coagulometer to self-test.