"Blood Testing Service at Gracefield Gardens 24/4/17"

I had a test to do at Gracefield Gardens, arrived 10: 15 to find there were over thirty-five patients in front of me. Many patients were stood up in the area, some with walking sticks, elderly without seating.

I hadn't eaten since 8 pm previous night for a fasting test. I had to find a seat in the Surgery area and listen keenly for my number to be finally called well over an hour and a half after I first arrived. There is some seating outside the blood testing area - three people working in there but patients for eye testing also seated in the same small area without enough provision for patients waiting to be seen for blood testing. From my experience, It is absolutely confusing and quite frankly not good enough.

I found my experience very frustrating not least because I had booked a 1 pm appointment in Battersea, needed to eat something in order to take my tablets because I am diabetic. The Walk In Clinic closed in March and in my opinion patients for blood testing from St Georges Hospital are now being sent to Gracefield Gardens without enough provisioning in the system so local people will probably now have to start going back to St Thomas's or Guy's again for blood tests because the waiting time plus travel probably will work out the same as going somewhere more local.