How long for blood tests?

[Northquit]

I've got swollen ankles and they've not got better.
So a visit to a PA who referred me for blood tests.
He listened to my heart and says that sounds fine to him.

So, he'd not sent through any info on where to get the blood drawn, so I rang and got the number today.

I'm sure when I've had bloods done in the past you just tipped up at Phlebotomy at the hospital and took a number and sat and waited.
However now you have to book. So My nearest location appointment is 24th ... Oh, that sounds a long way off. Next nearest ... 22nd ... Ok, let's see when the next appointment is .. 13th September.
Ok. I'll have that.

Is that the state of bloods sampling these days?

I'm surprised because my local area has a fabulous new testing facility which can process an amazing number of samples! Royal Oldham Hospital's FlexLab X can process up to 15,525 blood test tubes every hour.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyjn8e04jjo

So, is it sat empty most of the time or is it processing blood from, the rest of the UK?

Joanna Borzomato, consultant clinical scientist, said: "We all know when we get our blood tests done, there is quite a lot of anxiety around waiting for your blood tests so the quicker we can get those results back to the clinician the quicker they can make a decision, then that takes some of that anxiety away".

Of course there's anxiety about blood tests - so me having to wait a couple of weeks for a sample to be taken seems to be a nonsense.

Am I just being irate for no reason?

I think they are trying to centralise bloods in some areas are being centralised to try and offload work from GP surgeries which have become overwhelmed. Sadly my experience was they centralised some of these nursing services but didn't staff them properly so they had to keep sending stuff back to us and we struggled to fit it in. I (and other GPs in the area) suggested they just give practices their share of the money and We could employ another nurse but this didn't go down well.

If the bloods get centralised then there will be no means of getting those bloods to the hospital to be assayed as the van would no longer come and do the pick up.
It's chronic underfunding of General practice that has caused this.