Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients on long-term Warfarin prescriptions now have access to self-monitoring technology; and whether Clinical Commissioning Groups support moves towards further patient self-management.

Information on the number of patients on long-term Warfarin prescriptions who have access to self-monitoring technology is not collected centrally.

NHS England and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have responsibility for commissioned services for patients who receive anticoagulation treatments. It is for individual CCGs to commission treatment and services for patients on anticoagulation treatment or other medications which require monitoring, as they are best placed to identify what is needed in their local areas.

There is guidance in place to support CCGs in planning services for patients who receive anticoagulation treatments. Under its Diagnostics Assessment Programme, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on self-monitoring of anticoagulation treatments which is attached and also available at:

http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/dg14

NICE has also published quality standards on the management and treatment of atrial fibrillation which set out that self-monitoring should be offered as an option to appropriate patients. The guidance is also attached and available at:

http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs93/chapter/Quality-statement-6-developmental-Selfmonitoring-of-anticoagulation