A SHIPLEY doctor has backed new national health guidelines which could save the NHS more than £11 million a year.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended patients taking warfarin check their own blood levels using a device from home, instead of having to go to regular, often weekly, appointments at clinics or hospital.

Warfarin, first used in 1954, is a drug used by one million patients to prevent thrombosis and can also help stop strokes and blood clots.

The move would save the health service £11.2 million a year in costly hospital appointments for regular blood checks.

Dr Matt Fay, who works at Westcliffe Medical Centre, Westcliffe Road, has lent his support to the move.

He said some warfarin patients in the Bradford district were already using the kits at home, which currently cost £300.

But despite the recognised benefits, just 15 per cent of GPs in the UK currently offer self-monitoring to their patients.

Of the 211 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England, who decide which healthcare services are available to people, only a third of them currently allow patients to self-monitor.

Dr Fay, a member of the NICE atrial fibrillation guideline development group, said: "This is a breakthrough for the patients. It's excellent news. It's a real step forward for patients. We already have got patients across Bradford who are self-testing.

"It is a viable alternative for patients to get hold of their own machines and they would be supported by their clinic. We have never had the scope to roll it out before.

"The NICE guidance recognises that self-monitoring is accurate and reliable and that warfarin patients prefer the flexibility and reassurance it provides.

"With the NICE Clinical Guidance on Atrial Fibrillation (AF), published in June, recommending that aspirin is no longer used for stroke risk reduction in people with AF, a further 300,000 people will need anticoagulation [medicine that reduce the ability of the blood to clot].

"Self-monitoring will reduce this increased burden on hospital and clinic resources."