Each time a COPD patient is admitted to hospital as an emergency case, the associated financial impact for the PCT is between £1,849 and £3,819. The direct health care costs of COPD to the NHS are estimated to be £805m per annum, with emergency hospital admissions accounting for up to 84 per cent of these costs.

New research by Education for Health has shown that COPD could be costing the economy £1.2bn each year, once factors such as lost income tax, payment of state benefits and productivity loss due to COPD are taken into account. This makes COPD a very costly illness.

In comparison, the consumable cost of performing a blood gas analysis on the i-STAT is around £5.00, and typical return on investment for an i-STAT system is less than six months. To see a more tailored illustration of the potential savings that could be made, please click on the following link and enter the appropriate details into our excel spreadsheet:

COPD Cost Calculator 

Statistics show that those people most at risk of returning to hospital have commonly already had a recent stay as an in-patient. In fact, the number of people readmitted to hospital after discharge has increased by nearly a quarter in the last decade.

To find out how much your PCT can save by introducing the i-STAT system, please call us on 01480 862100 or email: COPD@axis-shielduk.com

References available on request

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