NHS won't give out biopsy results.......

[bitofcheese]

can't quite get my head around this one, three months ago had a gyni op to remove lump downstairs. haven't had the results, not has the gp. gp told me chase up calling hospital. spent all my phone credit going post to post with local hospital, may as well asked the cat for all the good it did, noone knew where to put me, kept getting conflicting advice. afther spending nearly half the day on the phone it turns out that (quote) we can't give you the results, you have to get them from your gp. went to gp who doesn't have the results, receptionist tells me that they are having avnightmare with local hospital as they rarely send the results through when someone has had a biopsy including when it turns out the results showed a malignancy, nice. i wish i had paid and gone fucking private. so i have no idea if my removed lump was alright or not. receptionist is going to 'try' and get the results although she isn't sure how, literally. unbelievable, you wouldn't it could be this crap. i thought in my innocence that the hospital would send the gp the results when the biopsy was done, certainly within 3 months of it taking place. i thought that it was a good sign that i hadn't heard from the hospital as i was trying to be upbeat but one of the other receptionists who over heard said 'oh no, never assume that, there could have been a mix up and we just haven't got he results, it happens alot....' fuck me

it is up to your GP to chase the results, you shouldn't have to do it

they hospital won't tell you anything on the phone, and your GP surgery would know that

get back to the GP receptionaist and say you want to make an appt with the GP to discuss the biopsy findings, that's galvanise them into chasing it

or if you were referred to a consultant at the hospital by your GP, perhaps you should push for an appt with him/her to discuss them

Your GP surgery should be following this up, not you. Most sensible way to do this would be to contact the secretary of the Consultant you saw and she should be able to chase the result.
Going private would not necessarily prevent this kind of scenario - administration errors and numpties are not exclusive to the NHS!
I hope your results are normal once they are found.

that will not that's

Make a private appointment, they'll soon find them then

thanks alot chaps, will do cheers :)

Sorry you are having hassle - it may be helpful to know that the responsibility for the results lies with the person who requested the test.

If it was an operative biopsy then that person would be your gynaecologist. Ring their secretary. Say you haven't got the results, are worried and want them. Mention how long it has been. If nice doesn't work involve PALS.

Going private wouldn't solve this though one of the worst cock ups I've seen recently was a friend who had a biopsy arranged by a private haematologist. The biopsy showed a cancer. The haematologist didn't act on it. The (private) GP got the result but their staff just filed it.... it doesn't look like any doctor in the GP practice saw the result.

My friend went without treatment for almost a year. It is highly likely their disease progressed during that time and as a result the overall prognosis is worse.

WRT the NHS I would say that bad news travels fast and good news travels slowly which is easy for me to say and not reassuring for you at all until you know that your result is OK though.

Oh and it is totally normal for biopsy results not to be given out over the phone. Imagine if it was bad? You need to be in a situation where the person giving the result can tell you what happens next. That person is not an admin bod.

agree with lurker and anyfucker. hospital admin are generally not allowed to give even good results out over the phone

to be fair how would they know it was 'you' speaking.

I agree that the person you should be contacting is the gynaecologist who did the operation. They won't give out results over the phone but should either write to you with the results or arrange to see you. It isn't the GPs responsibility as they didn't do the operation.
I would phone the consultant's secreary at the hospital and tell them you'd like either an appointment to dicuss your result or a letter with your result in.
3 months is ridiculous, I'd probably also send the consultant a complaining letter saying that you are disappointed that you are having to chase this up and that no-one has contacted you with the result.
It may be a letter has gone astray but when you told the consultant's secretary you hadn't received a letter they should have chased it up.

The consultan't secretary should pull your notes for the consultant to see. The last letter to your GP should be in your notes, as well as the results. If not...someone is obviously not doing the filing properly. I used to work in Medical records, and I know that backlogs of filing do build up,but there should have been a follow-up appointment to get/discuss the results, as a fail-safe, anyway! But your GP should be doing the running about ,really , not you. Results are not usually given over the phone, because anyone could (and have, in my experience ) phone claiming to be you! .

when i had the op done i clearly remember the consultant telling me i didn't need a follow up consultation and that i should go and see my gp in a few weeks to discuss the results of the biop. you would think it was simple really. i made the appointment to see the gp a few weeks later than he had said to make sure they had sent the gp the results which they hadn't. dr (gp) said to me that if i hadn't had them in a few weeks to let her know so she would chase (which was what i was doing when i popped into the gp's yesterday). tbh this is the first ladies op' i have had on the nhs for years, usually go private (as have had a few) and is alot more straight forward than this or at least it had been previously. i can't really afford private anymore and know it certainly ain't perfect but i could do without this, i want closure really. thanks for your responses. i will call the consultants secretary to see if she can help (in sending results to dr)...

your GP should chase the results.
hope all is OK.

Why should the GP be chasing this? He referred the patient to the consultant who did the biopsy. Getting the biopsy result is between the patient and the consultant. Many consultants prefer to give biopsy results themselves as they know what they plan to do next given the biopsy result. Some path labs will only give histology results to the doctor who did the biopsy.
GPs have alot of things to chase, biopsy results done by consultants shouldn't be one of them.

because the GP made the initial referral.
because the OP is struggling to contact hospital services and it would be easier for the GP to do it.

Why not? I would.

I would get onto the hospital PALS team and kick up a fuss, they usually sort things out quickly.

This is not the job of the GP. The hospital are payed a tarif (amount of money) for each referral and operation they do. This includes follow up. Passing the buck to the GP is a way of not doing work they have been payed for. Also GPs aren't trained to interpret biopsies from every part of the body, that's part if the specialist's job. If the patient is discharged before the biopsy result and the biopsy is abnormal the GP will have to refer again, which is a waste of time all-round and the hospital get paid again for another referral. It's gaming by the hospital and patients like the OP are stuck in the middle.

The lab will send the report to whoever or whichever department requested it. For example, a request could come from clinic x but with no consultant named, so the report will be sent to clinic x not to an individual consultant. Laboratories do not give out results to patients, regardless of what has been requested. All your gp needs to do is phone the lab who can tell them the result and send the results to them. It's all electronic so they'd get the report the same day, in this case as the specimen was processed quite a while ago. Make a gp apt and make them phone the lab whilst you're there. Phone the consultant's secretary and explain that you haven't had any follow up, don't know your results, your gp is not being helpful etc and see if they can fit you in as an emergency apt with your consultant, or give your gp a kick up the arse on behalf of you.

It is not the GP who who deserves a kick up the arse but the consultant. Nightfalls is absolutely right; it is the consultant's duty to follow up and to inform you of the result - the General Medical Council is absolutely clear about this.

Not only are the hosptial paid to inform you, but it is unsafe for the report to be analysed by the GP, as s/he did not take the specimen. The biopsy result needs to be interpreted by your specialist - it is not as simple as "normal" or "abnormal".

Hundreds of thousands of GP hours are wasted each year trying to chase results for patients - time that could have been spent seeing patients, rather than trying to do hospitals' jobs for them.

You could try going to the hospital when the consultant is doing the clinic and making a giant fuss. Worked for me when I had a lump and couldn't get an appt after tests had been done. Ended up going private for treatment after that.