Is this the new etiquette at the Dr

[hattie43]

I had an ECG on Monday following chest pains on Saturday and the Dr noticed my heart rate was marginally fast , he said this could be anxiety because of being at the Dr's and worrying . He said to be on the safe side I had to come back the next day for blood tests . This is where I was surprised. He said I would only get a call if there was anything on the blood tests indicating an anomaly . I
Haven't had a call .
Is this usual these days ? I haven't been to the Dr for years so don't know if this is new , I wouldn't want to assume it's all clear if they've just forgotten to look or ring ?

I'd give them a call to make sure they've not overlooked you.

I'd ring to double check too.

My GP always says how long it will take to get results, and if I dont hear back from them to call the surgery.

My Mothers GP sends a text message if everything is ok and calls if she needs to discuss.

I think it varies for each surgery.

My surgery is like this too. If they don’t contact you after a test then assume that all is well. But I would like that confirmation that all is well.

I should imagine you haven't had a call because there is no anomaly.

I work in a surgery and we only contact patients if a problem but we are happy for patients to call or pop in to check results. Our policy is to call after 2pm for results as phone lines are mega busy before.
personally I have online access and can see my results which is easier (if you can work the app!)

No news is good news*

*unless it’s a fuck up and we forgot to call.

Get the app!

You can usually see the results on the NHS app.

I think it's normal- the GPs check all the results and decide what action is necessary.

I had normal bloods recently, I was down to me to ring/check the app - if anything had been needed Gp would have contacted me.

My surgery tells you “all fine, nothing to be aware of” and then a year later after the yearly blood test you get “how is your [unpronounceable condition I’ve never heard of] currently?” Turns out the previous years test had picked up on this condition but the receptionist had decided to keep it from me! It’s not dangerous or anything but something I should have been aware of as it affects the drugs I’m on for something else.

Exactly

My surgery doesn’t share anything on the app! They “don’t think it’s beneficial”.

Monday as 2 days ago and bloods taken yesterday? It's at least a week until you get results here.

No they said blood results are provided the next day .

You are lucky to be able to get a blood test, or even an appointment without being over 75.

I hope you are OK, but how on earth do you get treatment like this?

It's been like that for decades , nothing wrong means no need for a call .

That is completely irresponsible and how things fall through the cracks.

you don’t only want to get confirmation your results are fine, you should see the results for yourself. I’ve had doctors sign off on horrible test results. Doctors are human and working in difficult conditions. Like all people, they make mistakes. Patients or an advocate need to double-check everything possible.

I rarely go to the dr so IME always get quick treatment. The last time I went was 10 yrs ago and although I've seen in the media and social media its hard to get treatment that's not been my experience.

I do wonder though that because I go so rarely they treat me seriously. The Dr said so as much Monday

Perfectly normal. We do over 150 bloods a week. At least. We haven't the capacity to contact every single one to tell them their results are ok.

Same at mine and you can review all blood test results on nhs app about 24 hours after they're taken

I'd guess a lot of people would feel the same about preferring a confirmation, including me (though I check on the app these days). That system seems like it's destined to cause masses of unnecessary extra work for receptionists fielding calls from people who know damn well you can't just assume GP admin is perfect and that hearing nothing must mean nothing's wrong — but that extra work's a few days down the road, so, meh.

I suppose maybe it's a hassle to set up a system for it, and get something organised at the surgery so that the doctors or whoever can easily click the 'send "everything's fine" text message' button, but surely in the long run it would save time and free up phone lines to be able to tell people, 'If everything's fine, you'll get a text message(/some other communication method for those who don't do text messages), if there's a problem, we'll call you, if you haven't heard in x days, call us'?

But I guess maybe IRL most people are either happy to go with the "no news is good news" system since that's what they're used to, or they have the app and use that, meaning that spending a load of effort implementing a system to notify people that everything's fine would only result in more ongoing work than dealing with the odd call from someone checking if their test results were actually okay. It's hard to know what people in general actually want — MN isn't particularly representative of the general population, and neither are any one person's friends/family/colleagues/acquaintances, and I'd be willing to bet that neither are the patient participation groups that they seem to be required to run.

I rarely go too, have to get into a long wait on the phone, 24th in the queue, finally get an answer, no more appointment, try tomorrow, or they answer and pretend not to hear you and put the phone down. Online booking takes ages, and is full up before you can finish filling in the questions, most of which don't apply.

I was registered for 8 years before I actually went there, but recently it has been impossible to get anything done.

I had a range of symptoms and I was given a blood test.

I didn’t hear anything for 2 weeks so I phoned and politely asked if my results were back yet.

The receptionist had a go at me saying that if I hadn’t heard anything then of course they were all clear.
She apparently checked and said yes like I told you all clear!

I’ve not had a blood test in years so I didn’t know but it seems this is the done thing now.

My surgery (if you can ever get seen or more likely, a phone appointment) doesn't phone with results. Neither do they bother to call you back if you phone them.

Can never get a blood test appointment at any of the hospitals they work with either, phone not answered, online form broken.

That system seems like it's destined to cause masses of unnecessary extra work for receptionists fielding calls from people who know damn well you can't just assume GP admin is perfect and that hearing nothing must mean nothing's wrong — but that extra work's a few days down the road, so, meh.
Or... for every one person that doesn't call and assumes that everything is really fine, that's one fewer piece of work the receptionist needs to deal with ever.
I mean really who on Earth do you think has to notify patients? It's not a magic text message robot, notifying patients is work for the receptionist/admin team!

OP this no news is good news approach has been standard for at least 15 years in the various surgeries I've been registered at in that time. AFAIK never in my life has a GP surgery phoned me to tell me about negative test results.
*Edit: I'm saying 15 years because IDK what went on prior to that as I didn't have a phone of my own for a couple of years and my mum would have managed it when I was a child.

@SisterMichaelsHabit obviously you didn't get to the part where I said But I guess maybe IRL most people are either happy to go with the "no news is good news" system since that's what they're used to, or they have the app and use that, meaning that spending a load of effort implementing a system to notify people that everything's fine would only result in more ongoing work than dealing with the odd call from someone checking if their test results were actually okay.