This is currently rolling out at Falkland Surgery.

In parallel to the screening day listed elsewhere we simultaneously arranged a mailshot program.  133 people were invited to the screening day and a random 133 people were invited to have a blood test for HbA1c and Blood Glucose.

133 people with a calculated QDiabetes 10 year risk over 15% were sent an invitation by post to have a blood test done over the next 4 weeks.  A blood test form was included in the pack along with the calculated risk value and a short explanation of the process.

The outcomes desired were to screen those deemed at high risk of Diabetes (the County Show event suggested a 5% current risk in those responding), or borderline results needing follow up, and also assess the costs and impact compared to the screening day. (The mail-shot approach is much cheaper but needs to be evaluated against response rate)

Costs

Creating searches and templates 100

Mailshot to 133 people 50

Blood test costs 5 pounds per test (plus phlebotomy time) (total cost depends on response rate)

Medical time to evaluate returning bloods (included in general medical time within the practice estimated 3-15 results per GP)

Results

133 letters sent out

36 blood tests completed within 4 weeks

1 Positive (raised) HbA1c results

5 Borderline results (HbA1c 42-47)

Therefore although less responses were triggered, the same numbers of postive results resulted as per the drop in day.