The form is interesting. PMs are asked to "distribute this form" whch must be used.
It is a PDF, so we are intended to print it out.
It is two pages.
The second page is a colour copy of the Bristol Stool Chart.
On the face of it, unless each sample is accompanied by a colour printout on our paper with our toner of a whole series of pictures of poos of various sorts and sizes, the test is not to be done. (A paper system might put the chart on the inside front cover).
Most of the first page is taken up by advice about how to refer a patient to a grastroenterologist, which is no doubt useful, but is not needed I think by the lab tech or pathologist seeing the request or the result to prepare a report.
(Which will be an electronic report, by clinical EDI)
A paper system might put this detail on the outside of the back cover of a pad of forms.
Much of the remaining space is a set of tick boxes, left blank and requiring on the face of it a handwritten tick on yes or no - if any are on no, the test will nt be done...
Ayyyyyyyaaaayayayayayyayayyaya!.
As a thought: one of the things that keeps pathologists and managers there honest - in the matter of only putting things on forms that need to be on forms - is that they pay for the printing and distribution of the bloody things, thus if the Path Lab manager enquires whether it is absolutely necessary for the request form for test X to be printed in 4 colours, glossy, and photographically sharp, and contain a handbook page in each instance the person responsible for receiving them will be in a position to assure them, and then convince them, that the drain on their budget is essential.
However if permission is assumed to use someone else's staff to run someone else's laser printer to put someone else's toner on someone else's paper all restraint is removed.
The fact that this causes a lot more work to be done in producing something much worse than a commercially printed metre high block of forms is ignored as this is someone else's budget (and therefore not at all a matter of effective use of social resources for healthcare.
GPs of course are free.
Hah.