"Care Beyond the Call of Duty"

I would like to express my appreciation for the excellent treatment I have consistently received over recent years from the staff at the Warfarin Clinic, who check my INR on a regular basis.

Recently, due to an injury, my INR reading was a little too high and slightly out of the safe range. As this was shortly before I was due to go on a cycling holiday to Northumberland, The nurse strongly recommended I get my INR checked whilst away. Unfortunately, despite phoning a clinic at the destination before leaving, I was unable to arrange an appointment and resigned myself to simply leaving things to chance.

I was pleasantly surprised then, to receive a call on my mobile, on the day I was due to arrive my destination and to find that it was the same nurse from Canterbury Health Centre, checking to see if I had managed to make an appointment. She and her colleague gave me the addresses of three places to try in the Newcastle area and emphasised the importance of making an appointment. When I told her I had fallen from my bike in the meantime, resulting in a large bruise on my arm, both nurses were even more concerned that I should get my INR checked and that my medication could be adjusted if necessary.

The next day, I attended the urgent care centre at the local hospital where I was able to be seen at the walk-in clinic there and then, and my reading showed that my INR was back on target. On Monday, I phoned the Canterbury leaving a message for the Warfarin Clinic about the result.

I can’t overemphasise how much I appreciate the care of these wonderful staff in the Warfarin Clinic who were so thorough with my care clearly going beyond the call of duty in this instance. I feel I am in excellent hands at your clinic and, writing this on the 70th anniversary of the NHS, this is in my opinion yet another example of the caring staff who make it so great.