Elderly FIL and blood test

[ExitViaGiftShop]

My elderly FIL had a blood test booked for yesterday, which was due to take place in the Phlebotomy dept of his local hospital. He turned up and when it was his turn, was told by the phlebotomist that they could not take his bloods because he had not brought his 'blood form' with him. This is a piece of paper which apparently details the type of blood test he needs. So, he had to go home and I've rebooked it for him.

Is this standard procedure or did he encounter a jobs worth? Surely all the info regarding his blood test is held on the NHS computer? It's 2024, not 1994! I'm really
annoyed that an 86 year old man was turned away and that the staff could not have found a solution to this non problem. AIBU?

I have health ID on my phone too which lists my meds, medical conditions, living will and says my pet is home alone please contact X

They won't
I was crying once because I felt so unwell and forgot my blood form and it was beyond me to go home, get it and come back
No form, no bloods

I also got told off for not mentioning I needed two lots of bloods doing last time I went

@ChristmasPostman he forgot his paper form, this should not be a big deal in 2024. All Info should be held electronically and be accessible.

Also, what a waste of paper!

Here ( Sheffield) we just turn up to the phlebotomy appointment and take a ticket to join the queue. The hospital already have a record of what tests are required on line based on the gps request. We don't have physical forms.

Does it get written on parchment and couriered there by elves on winged horses?

Well no - the FIL wasted peoples time, nhs time and his own time by forgetting the form. The whole reason he was given the form was to take it with him.

The reason bloods are taken at hospital/a centre is because samples are only often collected daily from a surgery - usually early afternoon. Very rare a GP will take bloods - they are very busy. Either a phlebotomist visits certain times a week or possibly a nurse or hca could take them but remember they are probably already running their own clinics.

Also phlebs are incredibly skills - taking blood is an art particularly on elderly/frail so they'll more like get a succesful draw

Why can't the GP just take the blood. Takes 2 mins and is hardly rocket science. That's the really bonkers thing. Having a whole separate department with a second set of support staff, not to mention the delays and inconvenience to the patient, seems insane

You're at your practice having bloods your practice have requested. This bloke was at another centre.

Many practice nurses now don't take bloods - phlebotomists do

Not all of it no.

I took a friend to hospital in Norwich - we had to take paper copies and emailed scans for her follow up back at home.

Different trusts/health boards use different computer systems

Each trust/UHB has their own budget plus nations are devolved. WHO would pay for it?

FIL was issued it but he forgot it - not the nurses fault - it's his fault.

We're in a small village in Scotland.
If our GPs request blood tests, we make an appointment with the nurse at the surgery, and when we attend, the nurse looks at our online notes and knows what tests the doctor wants done.

I haven't seen a paper request for bloods since we moved here.

It's not a waste - the bottles have barcodes attached to them once blood is taken which are part of the form - it labels them has his

How do they label the bottles then? The bottles are labelled, put in a little bag with a corresponding paper label attached. You may not see it but they are.

Same as swabs, samples etc

The computer dispenses the required labels.
I know that the bottles and forms need to be labelled correctly.
I was a nurse myself.

All the bloods, swabs and urine samples etc. are collected daily and taken to the hospital 60 miles away to be processed.

Would you rather the GPs were taking blood, which can be done by someone else far more cheaply, or doing the bit of their job that most people can't do?

A CEO can hoover his own office, it's hardly rocket science, but it's not a good use of their time.

I really cannot agree with you.

"The GP is very busy" - but not too busy to input the test request into an IT system, so that the secretary can print off a referral letter to send to the hospital, where another secretary allocates an appointment time (which might, or might not, be convenient for the patient) and then sends a letter to the patient, who then knows where and when he is supposed to go. In the time it takes the GP to dictate the letter, or input the info, the blood test could have been taken, or as others have said, the practice nurse could have taken the sample.

So what if the patient forgets the letter? Even if we accept this convoluted "system" why does the phlebotomist not have a list (electronic would be great) of who is coming that day, and why they are coming? E.g. Mr Smith is coming for XYZ test, Ms Jones needs AA and NN tests and so on. Belt and braces - and far more efficient for everyone than relying on patients to bring a slip (assuming that the letter actually told them that this was a requirement)?

None of what the OP describes, or what you describe, actually puts the patient at the centre of care. Nothing is organised to make it as easy and convenient as possible for the patient. It is almost as though the patient is an inconvenience to "the system"

but all he had to do was take the form @Havanananana - then nobody needed to do anything else?

It would be so convenient for all the systems to talk, but none of the health care professionals are being obstructive- they just can’t get the information. The form is signed by a doctor/nurse, if they’d of ‘quickly rung the surgery’ and stayed on hold (for 1hr 8 minutes last week i might add!) the form would still not be signed and phlebotomists cannot ‘order’ test results.

Blame chronic lack of funding and the reluctance to fully fund the NHS, not the staff in this instance!

@Blushingm what a creaky old system, attaching a sticker to a bottle. What if it falls off or gets damaged? Why can't barcodes be generated by the phlebotomist on their computer? Or the bottles somehow scanned. It's so old fashioned. They were probably doing this in the 1990s. The system needs an overhaul.

Standard that you have a form but our surgery sends them electronically to hospital or surgery practice nurse .

I'm concerned about how much money is wasted. I fear at the moment it's a case of throwing good money after bad. It's so inefficient. What a stressful environment for clinicians and patients. The NHS needs to be rebooted.

@ExitViaGiftShop

It's the same system we have here. Last time I went for a blood test at least three people were turned away because they didn't have their forms.

So you've rebooked the test but FIL will still have to have a form to take with him. Who originally requested the tests? Because if FIL can't find the form he was given at the time he will have to go back to whoever it was and get a duplicate form otherwise he will be turned away again.

The form will have all his details on and tell the phlebotomist which blood tests need to be done, which colour tops on the bottles, and will accompany the samples to the lab.

Do you really think "the whole separate department" is there just for this one surgery? Or just for GP surgeries? The department is there the service all of the community and the hospital it's attached to. Even if the GPs are doing their own bloods, there still needs to be a phlebotomy department.