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Blood test nurse with NO appointment got firemen to damage door.Who pays?

440 replies

logiccalls · 03/12/2025 22:06

Someone who goes decades without any G.P. contact (being allergic to chemicals, and therefore never wanting to get pills) decided to get a private health MOT: The results were excellent, except for one which indicated it might be advisable to take a further blood test via the N.H.S.

The person was permanently disabled by a violent and stalking ex, therefore finds it difficult to get to a surgery, and asked them to send a home visiting nurse to do a blood test. This is a person made resilient by adversity, and keeping as healthy as possible, so with no history of mental problems or heart problems or anything else. (And even the requested blood test was resulting from a private MOT, which the NHS knew nothing about)

The GP has never been spoken to, just the receptionist, who promised to pass on the request for the blood test .

There was no further contact: NO appointment: No response: No email: No phone contact: No letter: No text.

Many weeks later, suddenly, a stranger had got into the block of flats, without using the intercom, and was agressively hammering on the flat door and trying to force the door handle to turn.

There was still no phone call, email or text. It could have been any intruder, inebriated, deranged or drugged. The occupant stayed silent.

The mobile phone rang, but with a witheld number, (which someone who has previously been stalked would of course never respond to.) Eventually, the stranger at the door went away. (There had been a parcel outside the door, before the stranger arrived, and as soon as she left, the occupant could at last open the door to retrieve it, and did so.)

An hour (?) later, a man was beating on the door as if to smash it in, and shouting. The occupant is deaf, but was obviously not going to open the door, to violent strangers, so again stayed silent. (But, because the parcel had been taken in, was clearly not lying unconscious on the floor for lack of a routine blood test, for which there had been NO appointment.)

The hammering on the door continued for hours, (?) and although the phone was constantly being rung, it was never used to send a text explaining there was any legitimate reason to attempt entry.

Later, it turned out the nurse had called the fire brigade, and it was their men taking over from her in battering the door. They then began to drill holes in the door.

The occupant had been unable to use the phone to try to get a lawyer, or to ring for any possible help from neighbours or the building caretaker. The 'number -witheld' calls were coming constantly.

With the flat's front door being destroyed, there was at last no choice for the occupant except to go to the door and call out "Who are you and what are you doing?"

A fireman explained who he was, and that there was a blood test nurse who had claimed that the occupant had "failed to attend an appointment for a blood test", which apparently he believed was justification for smashing the door. (?!)

a)There was NO such 'appointment'. b)The occupant had no idea who the nurse was, or the fireman was. c)Nobody texted.

But could it ever be reasonable to smash the door of someone for such a minor reason, for someone with no medical or mental illness history, and with evidence the person has taken in a parcel, so is obviously fit and well?

This is bullying and abuse of power, instigated by that extremely aggressive nurse, and enabled too readily by a fire brigade who were colluding in the constant phoning, yet never requesting a text should be sent, to a deaf occupant, to identify themselves or the blood test nurse, or to give information about the alleged "appointment".

(The medical records will not show much contact with the NHS, for decades, but there would be a note about deafness, so the fireman's statement that he had called out the word 'fireman' would not be justification to destroy a door.)

There is no house insurance. The front door is a security door and a fire door, so will be expensive to replace. Large holes have been drilled through it. Is it true, as the fireman suggested, that the NHS surgery will be liable to replace the front door?

OP posts:
ThisLittlePony · 05/12/2025 13:58

@WiddlinDiddlin don’t think there was an actual “pothole” op is referring to the holes that the fire services drilled through I think!

TheSnowiestQueen · 05/12/2025 14:22

logiccalls · 05/12/2025 00:46

Snowqueen you have been thoughtful in your replies, thank you. You noticed the one about the new door costing £2,500.,and not being insured, despite the belligerent insistence of other posters that it must be insured.

There is of course a door chain, but the fully locked security door can withstand a determined bashing, which a cuple of screws on a doorchain cannot. A potential intruder will not politely stand away from a door which has been opened on a chain, in order to permit it to be closed again.

There is a "doorbell camera". It is the intercom. It is intended to stop anyone getting into the building: What potential visitors need to do is stand at the building entrance, where they are in full view of cctv, then press the flat number, on the intercom panel. Then, the flat occupant is in control and has the choice. Nobody will answer at all, if s/he is out! But nobody can be forced to answer, if s/he does not expect or welcome a visitor, or does not recognise or trust the person standing there.

In that case, the resident will not answer the intercom at all, or else will answer, and if necessary, will explain it is not a convenient time and request the person to leave. That is an extremely safe way to deal with people at the door. It means, too, that the strangers cannot stand outside the flat and hear the occupants, so the occupants won't need to hide silently in their kitchens, hoping to be assumed to be away from home, while their door is being attacked by someone unwelcome/unknown.

If the residents wish to speak with the visitors, they can do so via the intercom, while the visitor is still outside the building: That is far safer than having to deal with one right at the flat door. Especially as, very often, there are no nearby neighbours at home, during the day.

Phoning the g.p. was attempted. The receptionist answered and said she would pass a message to the GP via email. The hoped-for result would have been to speak on the phone, eventually, with the GP, to discuss which if any) blood tests would be advisable. You mention internet consultation, which sounds sensible, but in this case just any ordinary phone call would suffice, as it needed only a verbal discussion. The phone records show there were NO phone calls from any surgery number,nor from any witheld number. The email records show there were no emails from the surgery.

The receptionist had said there was a note about home visits, and seemed to think that could be done. But surely, whatever and wherever the test was to be, making any 'appointment' was impossible without prior discussion with a patient?

The receptionist certainly did not make "an appointment", then and there. Nor did she suggest any time frame. Weeks, months, years? News reports are about amazing delays, including for known cancer patients. It was not necessarily unreasonable to just patiently and passively wait to hear some further communication from the surgery.

And there was NO further communication. No email. No phone call. No text. No letter. No appointment made means no appointment which the patient had "failed to attend". Nobody can be accused of "failing to attend" something they know nothing about, can they?

The receptionist's mention of a 'home visit' being on notes is causing a lot of online abuse, but MedExpert and another poster explained that people can go 23 years without seeing a GP, and that notes may be wrong, or out of date, or may have been written in a different situation. Or when different rules or systems applied.

Edited

@logiccalls How long have you been with the GP practice and do they have all your notes and medical history up to date?

Do you need to go and see someone and make sure your notes are accurate ?

Even if you feel you have been very healthy for decades are your medical notes accurate now? Is here some confusion over being 'housebound'?

Is 'housebound ' a MH issue rather than a physical issue?

Minjou · 05/12/2025 14:39

OP, we're all dying to know how the story ends?

The nurse, dressed like a ninja, sneakily gained entrance to the block, came to your door, and immediately started hammering on the door and trying to break it down through sheer temper. She then snuck off again and got the fire brigade to come, and they hammered on the door for hours,while helping ninja nurse call your phone. They then got machinery to batter holes in the door.

You then appeared and asked them all who they were and what they wanted. But then what? What happened next?

PigeonsandSquirrels · 05/12/2025 16:43

In all of this OP, even if you were too frightened to call out, to open the door or answer the phone due to your traumatic history (I can’t blame you for that if you were disabled by a stalker, many would be terrified from that) is why didn’t you call the police? Incoming calls don’t stop you from making a 999 call. You just press reject and then make your own call. Or you can press the volume and power button at the same time on an iPhone and it will call SOS to the police.

That would have prevented the fire brigade from breaking in. You didn’t do that.

TheSnowiestQueen · 05/12/2025 16:54

(And even the requested blood test was resulting from a private MOT, which the NHS knew nothing about)
The GP has never been spoken to, just the receptionist, who promised to pass on the request for the blood test .

I'm sorry to pick up on this @logiccalls but it's unusual and unlikely that a GP who you've never seen, or had contact with for decades, would sanction a blood test on request by you speaking to the receptionist. Especially when that request was based on a private blood test result (which they had not seen.)

This is because the GP has no proof there was a blood test at all, what the results were, if they warrant another test, etc.

oneoneone · 05/12/2025 17:02

TheSnowiestQueen · 05/12/2025 16:54

(And even the requested blood test was resulting from a private MOT, which the NHS knew nothing about)
The GP has never been spoken to, just the receptionist, who promised to pass on the request for the blood test .

I'm sorry to pick up on this @logiccalls but it's unusual and unlikely that a GP who you've never seen, or had contact with for decades, would sanction a blood test on request by you speaking to the receptionist. Especially when that request was based on a private blood test result (which they had not seen.)

This is because the GP has no proof there was a blood test at all, what the results were, if they warrant another test, etc.

Edited

Yes. I asked about this earlier in the thread, but the OP seems to have chosen not to respond to anyone curious about the likelihood or logistics of this.

I do some work with vulnerable people and sometimes help them try to sort medical care and I suspect 99.9% of them would give a limb for such a responsive and compliant surgery.

TheSnowiestQueen · 05/12/2025 20:09

oneoneone · 05/12/2025 17:02

Yes. I asked about this earlier in the thread, but the OP seems to have chosen not to respond to anyone curious about the likelihood or logistics of this.

I do some work with vulnerable people and sometimes help them try to sort medical care and I suspect 99.9% of them would give a limb for such a responsive and compliant surgery.

Agreed.

It would not be right for a GP to offer a blood test based on a message via a receptionist without seeing the results for themselves as evidence. And when the patient is unknown apart from some very out of date notes from decades back.

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 00:07

It would depend on what the blood test was for, surely. It is possible that the District Nurse was asked to pop in to assess the situation and gain further information.

There are so many 'Doctors' on this thread using their full diagnostic skills to pronounce on this person's state of mind.

I am reminder that many enquiries have thrown up an absolute compendium of chance, miscommunication, and misunderstanding, as well as many other mishaps which may happen on the road to good intentions.

This thread has been enlightening with many posts of practical advice, thank goodness.

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 07:36

Find it hard to agree with all of that @OLDERME .

It would be enlightening if the OP had posted this is General Health rather than Legal, and some GPs had replied.

District nurses don't turn up to make a call on a private blood test that has been received but never seen. At the very least the OP should have forwarded her results by email to the surgery as proof.

Can you imagine the misuse of the NHS if GPs responded to private tests (with a home visit) they had never even seen? And where they had not spoken to or ever seen the patient (for decades).

No one is saying they are a dr, but common sense and a modicum of understanding is all it takes to question this whole scenario.

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 08:08

The way OP mentions is it was an MOT blood test which usually means they test for a lot of basic things- the list can be into the hundreds so it's not just a test for one or two things. And some of the results can vary according to the time of day/ food eaten or not etc.

Some of these tests prey on the 'worried well', because the reality is that tests should usually be focused on the most important things, like cholesterol, blood glucose, thyroid, iron and Vit B/D.

ThisLittlePony · 06/12/2025 08:17

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 00:07

It would depend on what the blood test was for, surely. It is possible that the District Nurse was asked to pop in to assess the situation and gain further information.

There are so many 'Doctors' on this thread using their full diagnostic skills to pronounce on this person's state of mind.

I am reminder that many enquiries have thrown up an absolute compendium of chance, miscommunication, and misunderstanding, as well as many other mishaps which may happen on the road to good intentions.

This thread has been enlightening with many posts of practical advice, thank goodness.

Are you op @OLDERME ? Similar syntax in posting?

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 08:35

This little pony.,..no, I am not the o.p.

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 08:40

To be fair, you can't change usernames mid-thread.
However, you do both use a full stop with abbreviations (eg O.P.) 😀

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 08:49

The world is full of coincidence. Maybe we are around the same age, with the same type of schooling,

BreatheAndFocus · 06/12/2025 09:50

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 08:49

The world is full of coincidence. Maybe we are around the same age, with the same type of schooling,

Maybe you were both the recipients of the same type of schooling? 🤔

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 09:50

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 08:49

The world is full of coincidence. Maybe we are around the same age, with the same type of schooling,

I was 'educated' to use 'full stops' for abbreviations going back decades (I'm possibly much older than you) but it's something that was phased out ages ago and no one uses it now.

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 09:55

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 09:50

I was 'educated' to use 'full stops' for abbreviations going back decades (I'm possibly much older than you) but it's something that was phased out ages ago and no one uses it now.

Edited

I am unsure of your point,

ThisLittlePony · 06/12/2025 10:12

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 08:40

To be fair, you can't change usernames mid-thread.
However, you do both use a full stop with abbreviations (eg O.P.) 😀

I’ve seen threads where op name changed mid thread as they used 1 different devices with different accounts!

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 10:18

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 09:55

I am unsure of your point,

You started discussing the style of writing and being perhaps the same age as the OP or taught the same way.

@logiccalls Uses full stops after all her abbreviations in her posts.

This indeed was the way many years ago ( 50 or more.) You did when you wrote o.p.

I too was taught that, but styles change. The accepted style now for abbreviations is to omit the full stops.

Anyway this is way off topic and the main thing is you aren't the OP!

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 10:18

ThisLittlePony · 06/12/2025 10:12

I’ve seen threads where op name changed mid thread as they used 1 different devices with different accounts!

oooh- naughty!

ThisLittlePony · 06/12/2025 10:33

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 10:18

oooh- naughty!

Indeed! I remember hq saying ‘impossible!’ Then the op said “oops! Using different device!!” Anyway I distract from op! Sorry!

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 11:53

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 10:18

You started discussing the style of writing and being perhaps the same age as the OP or taught the same way.

@logiccalls Uses full stops after all her abbreviations in her posts.

This indeed was the way many years ago ( 50 or more.) You did when you wrote o.p.

I too was taught that, but styles change. The accepted style now for abbreviations is to omit the full stops.

Anyway this is way off topic and the main thing is you aren't the OP!

Edited

Yes, I understood your written words, just not the point of you writing it. Seemed critical to me, were you trying to be?

kittensinthekitchen · 06/12/2025 18:22

TheSnowiestQueen · 06/12/2025 08:40

To be fair, you can't change usernames mid-thread.
However, you do both use a full stop with abbreviations (eg O.P.) 😀

You can use different accounts, rather than the same account with a name change.

kittensinthekitchen · 06/12/2025 18:25

TheSnowiestQueen · 05/12/2025 14:22

@logiccalls How long have you been with the GP practice and do they have all your notes and medical history up to date?

Do you need to go and see someone and make sure your notes are accurate ?

Even if you feel you have been very healthy for decades are your medical notes accurate now? Is here some confusion over being 'housebound'?

Is 'housebound ' a MH issue rather than a physical issue?

Edited

The OP has posted just a few months previously that not only was she not able to register with a GP practice (due to unstable housing), she had 'no previous medical records'.

Sorry, IIRC that may not have been the OP, it was a 'recipient' or 'person' too Wink

ThisLittlePony · 06/12/2025 20:20

OLDERME · 06/12/2025 11:53

Yes, I understood your written words, just not the point of you writing it. Seemed critical to me, were you trying to be?

Nope, barely thought of you so would’nt be interested enough to be critical of you @OLDERME !