Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear - here we go yet again . . .
1. Compare like for like - "diagnostics" tends to include imaging and histopathology as well as U&E and glucose, so everyone is tarred with the same brush
2. The media tend to concentrate on the extremes - so even "blood test" would include assays which need to be referred nationally (or even overseas)
3. Laboratory medicine's case has never been helped by our general practice colleagues - in particular GPs who (usually benevolently and thus legitimately) request a "blood test" simply to buy time [with tongue only possibly in cheek, perhaps labs should include "serum placebo analysis", with 'sinking' of the specimen, in their repertoire for this purpose?], and their staff who state a standard 2-week TAT to minimise enquiries and get anxious patients off their back
Can our professional bodies please re-emphasise that most 'simple' results are available within minutes, rather than hours or days, of specmen receipt, for primary as well as secondary care situations? The main causes of delay lie in specimen transport and (in primary care) specimen collection (eg "you'll have to make another appointment next week for the nurse to take your blood"). What patients really need is reliable access to prompt & convenient blood collection services!
Seriously, does anyone have a route to Charles Moore and/or the Spectator, to prompt at best a retraction or at least avoid any recurrence? - thanks to accreditation we should all be into corrective & preventive action nowadays
Please also note the 'perverse incentive' from CQC - all venepuncture premises must be regulated, whereas capillary puncture & analysis sites do not even need to register . . .
Best wishes
David
________________________________
From: Clinical biochemistry discussion list [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rhys John [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 May 2012 16:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: A call to arms
Did no-one spot Charles Moore's comments on the failure of the NHS to get patients' results back in less than a couple of months and the subsequent letter from an ex-pat in New Zealand, "A more reliable service" where they enjoy results delivered to GPs within two days?
Both appeared in The Spectator, 28th April and 5th May, for those interested.
I am sure someone can post the links to both.
With best wishes
Rhys
Dr Rhys John, PhD, FRCPath
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