The design and management of a GP based INR testing and dosing scheme.
"The Cornwall Experience"
		Interested in setting up a community GP based INR testing scheme but do not have any idea where to start.? The following article has been written to give healthcare professionals the opportunity to see how an existing community GP based INR scheme has been set up and managed on a daily basis. Started in 1995 the Cornwall community based INR testing scheme has proved to be a particularly successful scheme that actively encourages a working “partnership” between the laboratory, Surgery and manufacturer/distributor. Originally developed by Phil Carson, Clinical Scientist at The Royal Cornwall Hospital following concerns voiced by the Health Authority regarding the use of unregulated “Point of Care” INR analysers The Cornwall scheme started with just 3 surgeries and now operates in a total of 20 with even more surgeries scheduled to join in 2007. The scheme was also presented at the 2003 NEQAS meeting and was very keenly received. “We wanted to create a partnership whereby surgeries wishing to do their own INR testing and dosing could do so safely with the confidence of having the total support of the laboratory for their results and the manufacturer / distributor for their product training” states clinical scientist and originator Phil Carson. “The laboratory acts as a consultant to the GP's and monitors the results obtained in the surgeries and advises on any anomalous results that they might have. Elitech UK Limited, the UK distributor of the HEMOCHRON® anticoagulation analysers used in the majority of surgeries is responsible for in-house training of all users of the analysers”. Continue