Survey about blood tests and results

[Amaretti]

Hello, hope you are enjoying the hot weather. I am a type 1 diabetic patient and also work in an NHS laboratory. I am doing a project this week about access to laboratory services for patients and need some feedback from diabetic patients

We really need some feedback from as many diabetic patients as possible about the following questions:

When attending the hospital to have blood taken would you rather:
A) just turn up at any time and queue
B) sign up for a time period (e.g. A 2 hour time slot)
C) book an exact time slot

Would you prefer to book hospital phlebotomy appointments...
A) online
B) by phone
C) by asking gp receptionist to book appointments for you

Do you want your HbA1c results sent directly to you (aswell as to your GP)?
A) yes
B) no

How would you prefer to receive your HbA1c results?
A) by post
B) by email
C) by logging into a website
D) by text message

If an admin is able to put these questions into a poll that would be fantastic otherwise please reply to the thread with your responses.

Any other questions, comments, concerns, experiences would be really gratefully received.
We have until tomorrow night (thursday) to get as much feedback as possible.

Many thanks for your help with this it is really appreciated!

 

[DeusXM]

My answers are in bold!

When attending the hospital to have blood taken would you rather:
A) just turn up at any time and queue
B) sign up for a time period (e.g. A 2 hour time slot)
C) book an exact time slot

Would you prefer to book hospital phlebotomy appointments...
A) online
B) by phone
C) by asking gp receptionist to book appointments for you

Do you want your HbA1c results sent directly to you (aswell as to your GP)?
A) yes
B) no

How would you prefer to receive your HbA1c results?
A) by post
B) by email
C) by logging into a website
D) by text message

Simply put, I would prefer as few 'middle men' as possible in the chain - no having to book, no having to get results from someone else, no having a receptionist reel off dates and times.

What would be REALLY helpful is if there was an option to have blood taken out of the usual 9-5 office hours. I'm really fortunate in that my GP surgery can do this sort of thing at 8am but the system gets let down by the fact that the appointment to follow up always has to be at something like 11am on a weekday at a far-away hospital.

 

[Monica]

As I'm used to getting the result immediately, I am hoping that this will continue as long as possible 🙂

 

[AlisonF]

I agree with everything DeusXM said, that covers what id like too

 

[Pumper_Sue]

I don't attend a hospital so can't help sorry.
GP takes bloods when and if needed or wanted for any reason. I just ring for the result 2 days after the blood donation

 

[Highlander]

I don't attend hospital as GP takes bloods every six months, sometimes more often. I get an appointment send to me by post. I live in Scotland and signon to the My Diabetes My Way web site to get all my results, works fairly well, sometimes there is a delay in results appearing.

 

[Lauras87]

My answers are in bold

When attending the hospital to have blood taken would you rather:
A) just turn up at any time and queue
B) sign up for a time period (e.g. A 2 hour time slot)
C) book an exact time slot

Would you prefer to book hospital phlebotomy appointments...
A) online
B) by phone
C) by asking gp receptionist to book appointments for you

Do you want your HbA1c results sent directly to you (aswell as to your GP)?
A) yes (my gp doesn't deal with my diabetes so my results go to my consultant)
B) no

How would you prefer to receive your HbA1c results?
A) by post
B) by email
C) by logging into a website
D) by text message

I prefer going to hospital to have my bloods taken as its hard work getting an appointment with the practice nurse plus it's 5 min walk from work.

I would like to get my results prior to going to clinic tho

 

[Amaretti]

Thanks for all the responses so far, the idea would be that all patients would have their blood samples collected at their local hospital rather than at their gp surgery. It would be great to know how people feel about this. Other options could be having a phlebotomy service at boots chemist, would this be helpful?

 

[Redkite]

My son gives a fingerprick sample at his diabetes clinic, which is then run through a machine which gives us his Hba1c in 5 minutes. I would hate to have to faff around getting appointments for venal blood draws and then having to wait days/weeks for the results. Surely this isn't standard practice?

 

[Mark T]

Thanks for all the responses so far, the idea would be that all patients would have their blood samples collected at their local hospital rather than at their gp surgery. It would be great to know how people feel about this. Other options could be having a phlebotomy service at boots chemist, would this be helpful?

I would much rather have the blood collection service at my local gp. Boots are OK as long as you have one near you.

 

[Lauras87]

My son gives a fingerprick sample at his diabetes clinic, which is then run through a machine which gives us his Hba1c in 5 minutes. I would hate to have to faff around getting appointments for venal blood draws and then having to wait days/weeks for the results. Surely this isn't standard practice?

I would LOVE that at clinic as I hate going for blood tests & it's a pain getting allowed the time to go for it during work hours

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Thanks for all the responses so far, the idea would be that all patients would have their blood samples collected at their local hospital rather than at their gp surgery. It would be great to know how people feel about this. Other options could be having a phlebotomy service at boots chemist, would this be helpful?

Slight problem local hospital is something like 80 miles away.
GP has vampires and nurses within the surgery who all seem to have an inability to draw blood from me 😡

You appear to basing your survey on a town situation not taking into consideration people living in the sticks.
Bloods are taken by 10.30 AM due to the courier picking up the sample at this time and transporting them to the local hospital 80 miles away. Which is a lot more convenient then what you are suggesting. 🙂

 

[AlisonM]

My clinic stopped doing tests/collecting results directly about a year ago. We have the bloods done via the surgery and they are available to all our medical team as soon as they're complete. I wouldn't want them emailed/posted to me.

 

[Redkite]

My clinic stopped doing tests/collecting results directly about a year ago. We have the bloods done via the surgery and they are available to all our medical team as soon as they're complete. I wouldn't want them emailed/posted to me.

Personally I think results should always be sent directly to the patient, especially as we are in charge of our own daily care. It would feel almost insulting to have them passed via the GP as a middleman, when the GP knows far less than the average (T1) patient! At my son's clinic, the printout from the machine is handed straight to my son to look at before his consultant even sees it - I think this is really good practice, making the patient central to their own care 🙂

 

[DeusXM]

the idea would be that all patients would have their blood samples collected at their local hospital rather than at their gp surgery.

This wouldn't work for me. The GP surgery is much nearer and also opens for later hours - mine is open 8-8, five days a week, which means I can visit either before or after work. In my experience, most hospitals are incapable of understanding other people have jobs and offer the sort of availability hours that make you despair, like 10-3 and they'll be closed for lunch.

 

[LeeLee]

I agree with the others re: blood taken at my surgery is much more convenient. I would like to get the results by email or post, copied to the GP.

 

[robofski]

the idea would be that all patients would have their blood samples collected at their local hospital rather than at their gp surgery. It would be great to know how people feel about this.

NO NO NO! I don't want to have to go to the local hospital!

Other options could be having a phlebotomy service at boots chemist, would this be helpful?

Not ideal as I'm sure it would only be available in the larger Boots which for me would probably mean a trip to the City Centre, another place I like to avoid!

It's a better option than the hospital though and more chance of there being an Out of Office Hours service I suspect.

 

[Northerner]

Not ideal as I'm sure it would only be available in the larger Boots which for me would probably mean a trip to the City Centre, another place I like to avoid!

It's a better option than the hospital though and more chance of there being an Out of Office Hours service I suspect.

A no from me for the Boots idea - the only Boots close is next door to the surgery and it's only open 9-6.

I don't understand the logic of suggesting people go to hospital for blood collection. I would imagine most people live closer to their surgery than hospital, since you choose your surgery because it's local to you! The costs to the NHS are surely going to be similar wherever it's taken, but the inconvenience and costs to patients would not make such a move popular.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hello, hope you are enjoying the hot weather. I am a type 1 diabetic patient and also work in an NHS laboratory. I am doing a project this week about access to laboratory services for patients and need some feedback from diabetic patients

We really need some feedback from as many diabetic patients as possible about the following questions:

When attending the hospital surgery to have blood taken would you rather:
A) just turn up at any time and queue
B) sign up for a time period (e.g. A 2 hour time slot)
C) book an exact time slot

Would you prefer to book hospital surgery phlebotomy appointments...
A) online
B) by phone
C) by asking gp receptionist to book appointments for you

Do you want your HbA1c results sent directly to you (aswell as to your GP)?
A) yes
B) no

How would you prefer to receive your HbA1c results?
A) by post
B) by email
C) by logging into a website
D) by text message

If an admin is able to put these questions into a poll that would be fantastic otherwise please reply to the thread with your responses.

Any other questions, comments, concerns, experiences would be really gratefully received.
We have until tomorrow night (thursday) to get as much feedback as possible.

Many thanks for your help with this it is really appreciated!

There you go. Comments/responses in bold.

 

[MargB]

As said on a previous poll, no longer have the option as now have to go to Community Hospital for blood tests. Just not done at our surgery anymore.

For this particular poll, I would love to get the results sent to me. Currently I have to talk the reception staff through the results I am looking for. Their first response is always "all is normal". Not good enough. I want to know the ldl/hdl/triglycerides elements of the cholesterol test, I want to know figures for the thyroid test, I want to know how I am doing on the HbA1c - what exactly does 'normal' mean for that? As someone else has already said, we know more about the results we are looking for and what we need to do in the next 6 months than the reception staff do.

I would love the option to receive the results myself. If there was anything I did not understand, I would be straight on here asking for help!!!