Minuteful kidney test

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Ruby111

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Hi everyone, new to this forum but I wanted to see if anyone else had been sent a at home urine kidney test branded ‘minuteful’? They have been ringing me for weeks asking if I have taken it and claimed it was sent by my GP. As my general diabetic related appointments have been moved due to covid I thought it was legit as it’s advertised on the NHS website. I took the test at home and downloaded the app (looking back Maby I was a bit naive on this) my result came back abnormal. I rang my GP who explained they have received the result but didn’t send the kit or my information out. Ive felt extremely anxious seeing the ‘abnormal’ result this week with no indication of when I’ll be contacted for further testing. There is no contact number just an email for minuteful. I know with covid a lot of us are probably under a lot of health related and general anxiety and just to give you a heads up if this comes in the post, don’t feel like you have to do it like I did, contact your gp if you don’t want to sign into this and push for it the proper way.
 
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Hello Ruby and welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear you have basically been scammed. There was another post about this a little while back.
Your best bet is to unsubscribe from the emails or report them as scam.

Also remember it is illegal for a GP to pass on your contact details or your medical records to anyone without your permission.
 
Ruby111 said:
Hi everyone, new to this forum but I wanted to see if anyone else had been sent a at home urine kidney test branded ‘minuteful’? They have been ringing me for weeks asking if I have taken it and claimed it was sent by my GP. As my general diabetic related appointments have been moved due to covid I thought it was legit as it’s advertised on the NHS website. I took the test at home and downloaded the app (looking back Maby I was a bit naive on this) my result came back abnormal. I rang my GP who explained they have received the result but didn’t send the kit or my information out. Ive felt extremely anxious seeing the ‘abnormal’ result this week with no indication of when I’ll be contacted for further testing. There is no contact number just an email for minuteful. I know with covid a lot of us are probably under a lot of health related and general anxiety and just to give you a heads up if this comes in the post, don’t feel like you have to do it like I did, contact your gp if you don’t want to sign into this and push for it the proper way. Now I’ll wait in hope my further results come back ok!
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This has happened to someone else who posted on the forum, concerning a different company.
 
Interesting one this. I too got a message naming my Gp surgery, and wanting to send out a test kit. As I have current issues being looked at, I took it as genuine. Interesting to see that in some places it's listed as a scam, yet search harder you do find NHS Trust's commenting on their link up with Minuteful to do "at home screening". I got an abnormal result, and not surprised at it, however talking with my practice 24 hours later they knew nothing about it, and assumed it was down to a referral to my NHS Trust. Minuteful did respond quickly to a text query, they phoned me, advised that the resuly may take 72 hours to show on the Gp system, and they also promised to go and talk to the Gp Practice Manager. Be interested to see how this pans out. The comment was also made that the Gp should follow up with another test at the surgery within a few weeks to see if the results duplicate.
 
Ruby111 said:
Hi everyone, new to this forum but I wanted to see if anyone else had been sent a at home urine kidney test branded ‘minuteful’? They have been ringing me for weeks asking if I have taken it and claimed it was sent by my GP. As my general diabetic related appointments have been moved due to covid I thought it was legit as it’s advertised on the NHS website. I took the test at home and downloaded the app (looking back Maby I was a bit naive on this) my result came back abnormal. I rang my GP who explained they have received the result but didn’t send the kit or my information out. Ive felt extremely anxious seeing the ‘abnormal’ result this week with no indication of when I’ll be contacted for further testing. There is no contact number just an email for minuteful. I know with covid a lot of us are probably under a lot of health related and general anxiety and just to give you a heads up if this comes in the post, don’t feel like you have to do it like I did, contact your gp if you don’t want to sign into this and push for it the proper way.
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Just a little update, had my proper yearly kidney function test at my GP and my results came back as normal with no concerns. So more reason to be more aware of these tests.
 
Update on mine, and it's NOT a scam though the process is less than satisfactory. The company is legitimate, but the communications between GP surgery and the company are sketchy. I had to resort to threatening a Freedom of Information Request before the company got in touch properly. The test is a simple "traffic light" result, ie no problem, slight problem, severe problem, and appears to be being done as a national screening, much the same for instance as the bowel cancer screening kit. I'm not totally happy with it, as much as anything because the GP surgery is I think pussyfooting around. I have had a NHS test done ( urine sample to hospital lab ) and await that. The excuse being that the home test kit hadn't been done properly..... which is nigh impossible. I suspect the NHS test might well show up an unpleasant surprise. If you have any doubts on the test, if you are offered one, it seems the point of contact between the company and your GP will be the practice manager. Hope that helps.
 
Andrew110758 said:
Update on mine, and it's NOT a scam though the process is less than satisfactory. The company is legitimate, but the communications between GP surgery and the company are sketchy. I had to resort to threatening a Freedom of Information Request before the company got in touch properly. The test is a simple "traffic light" result, ie no problem, slight problem, severe problem, and appears to be being done as a national screening, much the same for instance as the bowel cancer screening kit. I'm not totally happy with it, as much as anything because the GP surgery is I think pussyfooting around. I have had a NHS test done ( urine sample to hospital lab ) and await that. The excuse being that the home test kit hadn't been done properly..... which is nigh impossible. I suspect the NHS test might well show up an unpleasant surprise. If you have any doubts on the test, if you are offered one, it seems the point of contact between the company and your GP will be the practice manager. Hope that helps.
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I'm pleased you got some sort of an answer, but who is paying that company for those tests and isn't it then a waste of money if it is having to be repeated through 'normal' channels.
 
Leadinglights said:
I'm pleased you got some sort of an answer, but who is paying that company for those tests and isn't it then a waste of money if it is having to be repeated through 'normal' channels.
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I think it is being trialed as a basic screening test so you don't go near the GP etc. If the result is other than normal, the follow up seems to be a urine sample being sent through the normal NHS channels to a lab. The home test kit may well be far more economic to the NHS than using lab tests since the patient does all the work.
 
I have just done the minuteful test and got abnormal results, this is a bit confusing as I have only just had my check up at the doctors including blood and urine tests and the nurse has phoned me to let me know everything is ok, I would have thought the tests from the gp would have shown any abnormalities.
 
Can you phone the surgery and leave a message for your GP or make a phone appointment with them @Vincer ? I'd trust the tests at the surgery over the minuteful ones, as they get sent to a lab, and have been reviewed by your GP. See if you can talk with the GP to see if they have any concerns, as they'd be the ones to assess the risk of any abnormal results.
 
I had an abnormal result with the minuteful home test. My GP surgery organised further tests and blood tests which the results were all clear. The nurse said that this is happening to a lot of patients and causing more work for the surgery and unnecessary worry for the patients. If you have a abnormal result on a home kit please don't panic until you have had proper information from the GP practice.
 
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