Our practices think it's vital for remote and rural medical practices to be as self-sufficient as possible. This prevents patients from having to travel long distances to town hospitals whenever possible.
Strachur Medical Practice was one of the first GP practices in Scotland to use a Quick Read Go machine to do lab tests in the GP surgery.
Thanks to the amazing work of the patients and staff in Strachur area who raised the money (including doing a sponsored loch swim!) to purchase and run our QuickRead Go blood test machine.
The
machine can test for inflammation levels in the blood in 2 minutes with
a thumb prick. This is vital in remote and rural communities because it is an
early marker for serious infections such as pneumonia and sepsis, and
early diagnosis saves lives. Especially when patients are more than an hour from the nearest surgeon.
It costs about £3 per test to run the machine, but our patients have already donated enough money to keep us going for a year or so. Since the nearest CRP machine for patients in Strachur is in Inverclyde Hospital a 1 hour drive and ferry journey, it also saves Strachur patients time and money by avoiding them having to travel to hospital as often.
The machine can also measure Haemoglobin levels to check for anaemia, and can test in 7 minutes for potentially dangerous Strep. A throat infections that unlike most infections need early treatment with antibiotics (compared with waiting days for a swab result to come back)
The plan is to ensure that we raise funds to purchase a machine for the Inveraray and Furnace Medical Practice so the patients of the practice can also benefit from this advance.
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