AIBU in thinking that if GP notes something wrong with your bloods, they should call you?

[DeTwamps]

2 months ago I had bloods done. Heard nothing back so presumed all ok.
I've since needed a copy of the bloods for an external agency and have called 3 times to get a copy of the bloods.
Finally today the receptionist goes 'Oh, hold on, there's a note on here - Patient to make appointment to discuss further management'.
Why the heck am I finding this out only now???????????

You'd swear I was trying to get access to Top Secret information. In fact, I've actually had an appointment with a gp in the practice in the intervening 2 months and nothing was mentioned!

I've had similar crap with this practice before where a consultant will advise a course of action to be taken by the GP but they don't actually act on it. I get copied on the letters and then I have to ring the GP myself to ask them to read the letter.

What in the world? FFS. AIBU?

YANBU however in my experience you really do need to chase. Also ALWAYS ask for a print out of the results as sometimes what they count as " normal" may not be normal/healthy for you.

We have to phone for results after 10 days, they only call you if it's ultra serious

@DeTwamps judging by responses on here the procedures vary from surgery to surgery. Whenever I've had a blood test I always ask how to get the results so I know what to do, (different at hospital or gp surgery here) so I suppose that's the way forward for you in the future. In any event, I hope you get the treatment you need quickly and feel better soon.

We can access ours online with a password. My dr in the UK used to make us phone up (and then would only say ok or not ok, not actually give the results!) but that was twenty years ago!

Our practice is brilliant. For any kind of test they do (ECG, swabs, blood test) you get a text message when the results are back asking you to call or make an appt, or just saying that they are normal. This is so good as people are not left in limbo and also not clogging up phone lines/making appts they don't need. I think it's a genius idea.

but I don’t know anywhere which has the manpower for doctors to call about every abnormal result. Ours do. We're told "if you don't hear, the results are normal". Presumably they've calculated send out X letters is less effort than fielding phone calls from X patients plus the Y patients with normal results.

But now we can see results on line, clearly laid out with the normal range for comparison.

It's actually a bit late now, as I'm experiencing symptoms again. If they had addressed it two months ago, I'd be fine now. Now it's likely going to require an inpatient hospital stay.

You've got quite a bad attitude based on the way you are replying to people on here; people who have simply answered your question with a factual reply.

Anyway, in my experience, if it's a non serious abnormality which doesn't need immediate attention, anaemia or the like, you'd phone to get your blood results. Otherwise, if it was showing that you had something like leukaemia, which needed immediate treatment then you would receive a call.

It is up to us to be proactive about our health and call for results ourselves. I assume if you had a learning disability or some other condition that would impact your ability to call for your results, then perhaps they would call you or a representative of yours.

I agree they should have contacted you.

I used to work in a hospital where we'd take outpatients' bloods (not the routine phlebotomy clinic) and someone every morning would have to sit down and go through the previous day's diary and check off all the results and action any thing which needed sorting.

you are legally entitled to a copy of any gp tests, most places dont realize this though.
I have a number of conditions including underactive thyroid, my gps have never contacted me even when there have been dangerous issues and they have not told me to contact them either. I have been at a number of surgeries and none have contacted me. My notes however say that i have been informed every time as by law they have to notify and as long as its written down then it apparently happened. I have online access now but most of the staff I have spoken to, nurses, doctors and health care assistants know the surgery they work at do it!!!

Well you have all my sympathy, OP, I know how frustrating it can be to deal with GP surgeries.

We supposedly get notified if our results show anything amiss. The reality is that we don't. I have several health conditions, and understand what my blood test results should be, but patients are generally not qualified to do that! I have had receptionists tell me that everything is "normal", but they're actually marked as "abnormal". I know that I need to chase everything up, but many people don't. Perhaps GP surgeries could make that clear to their patients if this is a system they use.

I even had heart tests which showed a condition potentially so serious that I had to go straight to A&E. Did the GP surgery contact me about this? No. It was some weeks later when I went for a routine appointment about something unrelated, and the GP decided to check my results and went into a bit of a panic.

Sigh
GPs are of course all sat around twiddling their thumbs and deciding not to bother phoning you just for giggles.

They. Are. More. Busy. Than. You. Can. Imagine.

My sister is a GP and her standard working day is 6.30-8pm and she logs back in remotely to try and file letters and blood results late in the evening. The mental load of the decisions she makes and risks she carries is overwhelming. I’ve seen it bring her close to breaking so many times and I wish she would leave the job before it kills her.

But you do you OP and rant away rather than just maybe make a single phone call and say ‘just checking of bloods were ok or any action needed?’

Results come the next day, because of my anxiety my gp will text me, to use askmygp to message if something minor, this week was aneamia with a suggestion to bug iron supplements. If some major like hypokaelemia he’ll text and ask me to call.

We have to phone ourselves but you can also look online.

But you do you OP and rant away rather than just maybe make a single phone call and say ‘just checking of bloods were ok or any action needed?’

I think all the OP is expecting is to be told if she needs to ring for her results.

That's not how it works at my surgery and it would be wasting everyone's time to call yourself and hassle the surgery for them.

I think the OP's getting a hard time when all she's expecting is very basic communication. The surgery can have whatever system they want but they need to communicate what it is to the patients.

I think it's standard to ring in from past experiences. My doctors will text if something not urgent comes up, and then you ring to make an appt/discuss, but they ring if it's more urgent. I've actually had an out of hours gp turn up at my home At 3am before as my blood results had a dangerously low level in them.

Our practice sends you a letter giving you your results and advising if there is any further action that needs to be taken. The letter usually arrives around 5 days after test. If there is anything more serious they phone within a day or two of test.

At my old surgery they used to call to let me know I need to speak to the doctor regarding bloods, swabs etc so I presumed all were the same. When I moved and used a new doctors, I didn’t hear anything so presumed all was good. It was only at another appointment months later it got mentioned

We are told to ring for the results - however the time when my bloods were majorly deranged the GP rang me a few hours later - looking at the time line I suspect the lab rang him as they were that bad rather than them looking things up

I work in a hospital and when they are dangerously abnormal the lab tend to ring the requester direct to tell them

though I do remember ringing once being told they were all normal by the receptionist and a few days later having a letter through saying make an appointment with the GP about my blood test results - guess what weren't normal? the ones I'd been told were - and unfortunately our receptionists will only tell you they are normal or you need to see the GP - they won't tell you what the actual figures are

I think this is extremely poor. My GP practice texts you with all your results.

Doesn't your surgery have patient responsibilities on their web page. Mine does and it advises it is the patient's responsibility to contact the surgery about test results.

@DeTwamps I’m quite lucky I can ring for my results and they’ll also email a copy to me.

But.....up int the last 2 times the receptionist insisted the bloods were fine and no further action required.

Both times I needed a transfusion. My bloods show as ‘ok’ but then due to other issues they’re actually not.

So there’s now a note on my file to just give me the results and I’ll sort direct with hospital.

But you do you OP and rant away rather than just maybe make a single phone call and say ‘just checking of bloods were ok or any action needed?

They're still going to have to check my bloods. Point is, after ringing twice for them, they had identified something wrong and still never called me. They don't have to call me. Their receptionists can. I was just never told there was anything wrong, despite there being a note there on the system.

Whether I ring them or they ring me, they're still going to have to review the bloods, so I'm not saving them any time!

My GP called me in person on a Saturday morning, to go through each test, explain the results and tell me they were fine
I'm a healthy person generally too
My GP is golden!