Getting my bloods done

[ElizabethJane]

As some of you may know I take lithium 1,000mg at night. I need to go to the hospital to get my bloods done every three months. The problem is that our local hospital is closing and I will have to attend the main one which has recently had new operating theatres wards and maternity built there. The problem is that the hospital is already vastly over used. When I go to get my bloods done at the old hospital I usually wait for about three quarters of an hour to be seen. The hospital parking charges are £3.50 from half and hour to three hours. There is usually a big queue and sometimes people waitng in wheelchairs and on beds. I am really concerned that when we go to the new hospital it will not be able to cope. I have to attend first thing in the morning ie 12 hours after my last dose. I have suggested to my GP that our surgery employs a phlebotomist but she says that it would not be financially viable. Other local surgeries have one. There is also an NHS clinic in Sainsburys but they haven't taken up my suggestion of a phlebotomist there. Our doctors say that its car park would not be able to cope and yet a different surgery with a far smaller car park has a phlebotomist but it is regarded as 'rural' I don't really want to change my doctors as I have a really good rapport with her. I'm not sure whether I will feel the same way when I have done several laps of the new hospitals car park trying to find a place to park! Yes it is on a bus route but it would mean a trip into town and then out again and that is before you have even started plus I have to get into work after all that. I'm sure others on this site will have similar stories to tell but at the moment I am dreading the switch to the new hospital. EJ.

[ElizabethJane]

An update to this saga. I went back to the hospital that is closing to have more bloods done for bowel screening. I arrived in the afternoon and there was no where to park. This caused some anxiety because I wasn't sure when the blood test department was closing. By this time I was in full blown anxiety light headed and feeling faint. I thought I'm going . Fortunately there was no-one in the actual department. I didn't faint. The only consolation was seeing a long tailed tit feasting on the brambles outside the window. In the department itself were leaflets telling people to make appointments for tests. This is something that I will try. I need to write to my MP about this too. I was unhappy having to have the tests although necessary and wait for the results. EJ.

[LucyR]

Hi, So if this hospital was empty and no one was there to do your blood tests why did they give you an appointment? and why was the car park full?

[ElizabethJane]

Lucy I did not have an appointment. I did not know that you could request one there. The blood department was empty because most of the wards are closed. The whole hospital will close on 1st October. The reason why the car park was full was because the maternity department is still open plus all the out patient clinics. An utter nightmare and not any better at the new hospitial infact worse. The old one St John's is an old workhouse so long overdue to close. Some parts are already open at Broomfield such as a Centre of Excellence Burns Unit the St Andrews Centre, an assessment unit for the elderly mentally ill numerous wards but unfortunately not any increased capacity in the car park!

[LucyR]

Hi, Oh yes I see, so you went to make an appointment at your local hospital but found out the blood department was closed, thats a pity especially after having hassle with car parking and panicking. I guess you will just have to take the option of going to the other hospital then, perhaps you could make it on a day off from your work if this is possible to avoid having to go in and out and then onto your work and stay there the whole day on top of the blood test results worries?

[ElizabethJane]

No that is not the story. Had a walk-in appointment ie no appointment just take a ticket and wait. The point I am making is that I have to have regular blood tests and the provision for parking and bloods at the new hospital is already full to capacity. Some surgeries do offer blood tests ours does not. The point I am making is that because I am taking lithium I have to attend in the morning ie 12 hours after the last dose. These have to be done every three months for life. If I dont go I could die. The afternoon bloods were for bowel screening something different entirely and can be done any time of day. Taking a day off to have a blood test is not an option. I expect the NHS is arranged somewhat differently in Scotland?

[LucyR]

Hi, Yes, its usually not a problem here to just go and make an appointment to get a nurse to take a blood sample, morning or afternoon to suit your convenience, but what I still don't really understand is the bit that you did get a ticket to sit and wait then the department was closed? surely that is not good.

[LucyR]

I don't think its probably arranged any different up here to England, probably you stay in a large city? whereas I stay in a rural town.

[ElizabethJane]

Hi the department closed at 4.00pm. It closes for good on 1st October 2010. Rural villages usually have access to a phlebotomist at their local surgery. My surgery isn't rural and my surgery will not pay to employ a phlebotomist.