Background: Levels of measles in England and Wales are at their highest for 18 years and strategies targeting the different groups of parents who don’t vaccinate their children continue to be needed. Decision aids for childhood immunisation decisions appear to be effective in achieving vaccine...

There is concern that the UK general practitioner (GP) workforce has declined relative to the expanding needs of a primary care-led NHS. Much of the debate about possible solutions within the profession and amongst medical workforce planners has focused on the need to raise medical school...

There is evidence that the numbers of diagnostic tests performed in hospital laboratories could be reduced without affecting outcomes to patients, and with significant concommitant reduction in costs. The concentration of testing in centralised laboratories located in larger hospitals, and the...

This paper presents the results of a study of the use by two general practices of the Reflotron dry chemistry analyser. The Reflotron is a desk top system which can perform diagnostic tests using a drop of blood, for components such as haemoglobin, glucose and cholesterol, and produces results...

Diabetes mellitus is a disease with major long-term implications, not only for the health and well-being of affected individuals, but also for costs to the National Health Service. Treatment of the disease and its complications takes up to 4-5% of total health care expenditure in the UK. These...

The purpose of this study was to estimate the costs and benefits of the use of erythropoietin (EPO) in the treatment of anaemia arising from chronic renal failure. Recurrent dialysis of chronic renal failure (CRF) patients results in their haemoglobin being depleted and the patient becoming...