"Some upsetting experiences at Birley Health Centre"

I have had several terrible experiences at Birley Health Centre recently.

Firstly, when I went to see a Dr recently I had to have my blood taken beforehand. I was surprised to find this being done by two young staff, who said that they were being trained to take blood. I was utterly shocked to see neither of them using gloves, or bothering to clean their hands or my arm before taking the blood, which they did with one of them holding the needle in place with bare fingers.

I was disgusted. What made things worse was the fact that they seemed to treat the whole thing like a joke, giggling and laughing throughout. How these two were allowed to do this with no supervision is beyond me.

I was then told I had to be weighed and measured, and was sent to a side room to do so. There I found only a piece of equipment, and was told I had to do it myself. I couldn't figure out how to use the equipment, and even the receptionist I asked didn't know either. When I was finally told, the procedure was so complicated I could not figure out how to weigh, measure, and write down the measurements all at the same time.

Having patients doing something so confusing themselves surely just ends up with poor information. Seem to be just cutting out the middleman at the expense of getting proper readings. The whole thing really was a comedy of errors.

During another incident where I went to see my GP after experiencing chronic diarrhoea, I was referred to the hospital to have tests carried out on me. The doctor then asked me if I had anybody to talk to, as they were fairly sure that I had bowel cancer. How on earth can you diagnose something like this without proper testing?

I didn't go into the hospital for another two weeks, during which time I worried myself sick. The tests were negative when I finally had them, and when I went back to see my doctor they apologised and said they hadn't meant to upset me. Of course I was upset after having a doctor telling me I have bowel cancer! I just couldn't believe it.