Changes to services: The Anticoagulation Warfarin Monitoring Service in York

Healthwatch York conducted a survey between October 2018 and January 2019 regarding the changes to the Anticoagulation Warfarin Monitoring Service in York. Twelve people talked about their experiences with this service. One person provided positive views relating to the new locality of the service but 11 people felt negatively towards the changes that took place.

The report found that there the majority of patients experienced a lack of consultation about the changes to the services. There were changes to opening times which affected working hours and patients struggled to attend appointments around work. The majority of patients reported difficulties in making appointments with their GP surgery within the time frames requested by the GP. Five people commented that since they had changed to their GP surgery, their INR levels had changed, highlighting ways the surgeries worked differently to the hospital in managing levels.

Recommendations included that VoYVVG and GP practices should consider feedback to date in terms of accessibiliy to appointments outside of working hours and in relation to individuals' needs. All service providers should commit to co-design and co-production when creating new services. For future service changes that involve multiple services, providers should consider ways of working together to make sure positive patient experience is at the forefront.