HCA and blood test

[oversensitive2021]

I booked a blood test at my GP surgery last week as requested by my hospital consultant. Turned up for my appointment today and the HCA was so abrupt telling me that I shouldn't be having blood tests requested by the hospital at my GP surgery and moaning about it constantly whilst taking me blood.
I left there feeling really upset, I didn't know that I should have blood tests requested by a hospital done at the hospital and if its such a big no no why did the receptionist let me book the appointment.
AIBU?

I feel for you, OP - I have had to have monthly blood tests following treatment that wiped the T and B cells from my immune system and will need them for the next four years.

I know it is the right thing to do in the long run, but making the appointments is like running the gauntlet of disapproval.

I will admit to having missed more than one during COVID.

I would make a complaint, I have to have a lot of blood tests usually for the hospital and always have them done at the GP’s.
I’ve never had anyone say anything to me about it except checking which tests are needed.

We do hospital blood tests at the surgery i work at, maybe your surgery don't and it was booked by mistake? Sounds unusual though. Not your fault x

Must depend on trusts.

Gp requested bloods would be done by the gp surgery.

Hospital requested done by the hospital.

She had no need to be rude to you about it though.

I've had hospital blood tests done by the GP surgery during covid with no issues. They always are, unless I happen to have a hospital appointment. Our closest hospital is an hour away, it would be bonkers to go there for a blood test every 6 weeks! If you're expecting to need another blood test I'd phone and ask if you're allowed to have hospital bloods done there. If no, you can tell the hospital that. If yes, you can say you're ringing because of what the hca said. I'd be concerned that they would put someone off having an important test and cause them complications.

I don’t think there is any real need to be upset, they’re simply telling you for future reference.

Obviously there was no need for them to be rude, but not all GP practices do hospital bloods. In some areas (NI for example), doing hospital bloods is an enhanced service that not all GP practices sign up to.

I have been before for hospital bloods and never had a problem so guessing its fairly new.
I don't have a problem with going to hospital for bloods and I understand she was just explaining the procedure but to be so rude about it and moan the whole time she was taking my blood.
Im not great at having blood taken I get quite anxious so having her moaning was not helping.

Ask to speak to the practice manager to clarify what the current rules are in your GP practice. Either way they need to update their staff of this as either the receptionist was wrong to allow you to book in for hospital bloods or the HCA was in her understanding of it. They also should pull the HCA up on her attitude as there are ways of doing things without being rude.
As a practice nurse I do GP and hospital requested blood appointments but as someone has said above that's not always the case, but as you say, you've been able to book them in the last with no issues!

I'm an hca working in primary care also and we do hospital requested bloods at the moment. I'm not sure I understand what the issue is as most of them are absolutely essential like monitoring for biologics, cancer care and so on and it's probably lower risk you visiting the surgery than going to a hospital right now.

Even if I didn't approve of someone attending for a particular blood test I would be nothing but pleasant and professional, ask if you are alright with bloods tests, reassure you, chat about the weather etc - certainly not moan at you for being there!

I agree she has a very poor attitude - please don't think that it is because she is an hca. I've met plenty of doctors and nurses who are rude and unpleasant - unfortunately you encounter them in all walks of life. Most hca's are incredibly kind and professional and have to undergo constant professional development and training and work extremely hard for very little money.

Getting hospital requested blood tests done at your GP surgery can cause issues for the staff at the GP surgery but that's not your fault. The hospital really should have given you labels for the blood bottles with the consultant name on them. This means the results go to the consultant and it's their responsibility to follow up on the results if necessary, so the only involvement of the GP surgery is taking the blood and sending it to the lab, which generally isn't a problem.

If you don't have consultant labels, they need to be labelled up with the GP details. Then the results come back to the GP, they have to figure out what to do with the results, maybe contact the consultant, then chase up again when they don't get a reply. It can all become a bit of a headache and time consuming, so a lot of GP surgeries prefer the consultant to just do the bloods themselves.

Not your problem though, but the admin side of it can be a bit of a pain.

@Spicedlatte

I'm an hca working in primary care also and we do hospital requested bloods at the moment. I'm not sure I understand what the issue is as most of them are absolutely essential like monitoring for biologics, cancer care and so on and it's probably lower risk you visiting the surgery than going to a hospital right now.

Even if I didn't approve of someone attending for a particular blood test I would be nothing but pleasant and professional, ask if you are alright with bloods tests, reassure you, chat about the weather etc - certainly not moan at you for being there!

I agree she has a very poor attitude - please don't think that it is because she is an hca. I've met plenty of doctors and nurses who are rude and unpleasant - unfortunately you encounter them in all walks of life. Most hca's are incredibly kind and professional and have to undergo constant professional development and training and work extremely hard for very little money.

Oh no don’t worry I don’t think badly of HCA I have met some lovely caring professional ones in the last year. When I told her the blood test was for cancer care she was a bit more pleasant, I guess she was having a bad day and I was having a bad anxiety day. Like my username says I’m just over sensitive at the moment.

I don't think you're over sensitive at all! It sounds like she was being a cow and I completely understand her comments must have been really unpleasant when you had every right to be there