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Blood test fiasco

Story from nhs.uk

"Blood test fiasco"

About: Russells Hall Hospital / Clinical haematology

I went to Corbett Hospital, Stourbridge, today (Wednesday, 31st August 2016) for a routine blood test. I arrived at 10.15 am and left at 12.15 pm - exactly two hours later. I have no idea whether the delay was caused by a shortage of phlebotomists, a massive in-rush of patients - or both. But - whatever the reason - it is totally unacceptable. To make matters worse - as if they could be any worse - no one had the courtesy or professionalism to explain the nature of the problem to the ever-growing queue of patients (either by a notice posted in the waiting room or by a simple announcement). In no other walk of life would this level of incompetence and arrogance be tolerated. Why do NHS managers alone think this level of 'service' is OK?

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Responses

Response from Russells Hall Hospital 7 years ago
Russells Hall Hospital

Submitted on 16/09/2016 at 17:09
Published on nhs.uk on 17/09/2016 at 02:30

Thank you, Linda, for taking the time to give us feedback about your visit to Corbett Outpatient Centre. We are sorry to hear you were disappointed with the service you received at our blood test clinic.

We appreciate that a two-hour wait must have been uncomfortable for you and apologise for the inconvenience. Our walk-in blood test clinics are extremely popular with patients, and are particularly busy following a bank holiday. We do our very best to plan staff and resources according to expected patient numbers; however, due to the nature of a walk-in service, it is difficult to accurately anticipate how many patients will need to be seen.

If there are considerable delays, we do ask staff to keep patients fully informed about the length of wait expected as best they can. We must apologise if this did not happen during your visit and have raised this with the team.

If you need to have a blood test in the future, you may wish to consider using our booked appointment service. If you do not wish to sit and wait, you can book a blood test at any of 13 GP practices across the borough. You do not have to be registered at the practice to use this service.. You can view a full list of these surgeries and instructions for booking on our website: http://dudleygroup.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/blood-tests/

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