Instead of trekking to Oncology hospital for bloods prior to renewal of Niraparib, (its a 30 mile rounds trip) Ive been going to the local cottage hospital the last two months (2 mile round trip)They send results up to my area trust who are supposed to forward them on to the Trust Im being treated at. Twice this has failed now, and Friday I had my nurse led review to make sure bloods are good for new lot of meds, and they havent come through or theyve sent them to the wrong department. Im furious as no pills as from tomorrow and I suppose it means the 30 mile journey to get bloods taken. Also I was sweating on My CA125 numbers which as not helped my stress levels. Supposed to be joined up thinking between the Trusts.
OK rant done
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Rosebine2
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Hi Rosebine. You rant as much as you want. I can't believe in this day and age how anything can get sent to the wrong department or get lost. Results are sent electronically surely so there is no excuse.
I would officially complain. You have enough to think about without the added stress.
I feel your pain as last week I was given someone elses blood results with a high cancer marker for bowel cancer I have ovarian and was crushed that i had another cancer my nurse specialist had bloods done again and def no bowel cancer pity the person whos results they were xx
Hi, how awful for you. Assuming you're in the UK you could think about using the NHS app. Your blood results would get entered onto it so you could access them and show / tell your CNS even if they haven't received them. Alternatively your CNS should have been able to phone the lab where they were analysed to get the results - particularly if your chemo depended on it.
It can be a lottery when results need to be communicated between Trusts. I'm really hoping things run more smoothly for you in future.
I always work on the basis if people can mess. Up, they will. Can you get your bloods taken, analysed, speak to medics about medication and collect from hospital pharmacy all on one visit? That is how my hospital does it. A long day for me with lots of waiting but no hiccups. I live an hour and 15 mins from hospital by car, so that also adds to length of day....
That's absolute rubbish and really annoying. I'm so sorry, the only thing you can do is cause a bit of a stink and hope they can sort themselves out. Good luck and hope it improves. Sue xx
Totally understand your situation and rant-my round trip is quite a distance and fortunately my local cottage hospital belongs to the same trust, but sometimes confusion happens even there when my oncologist team have forgotten to order the blood test to take place outside of the main hospital.
Having worked in an NHS trust along side another NHS trust, blood tests results not coming through to the correct team in another trust may happen as different trusts may use different patient record systems, different labs and along the chain different staff may process the results to another key member of staff(who maybe on annual leave-day off-backlog of inputting-new to the job-unaware of the urgency for your results
I totally agree with you-the situation is not acceptable - do raise a complain via the trusts PALS team-ring them in the first instance,send an email, copy in your care team so they are aware of the situation. The PALS (Patient Liaison Service) is to investigate, assist with solutions and monitor the outcome (all complaints they receive are reported to the CEO or a senior NHS trust director) - sometimes I feel they don't advertise their services enough but all English NHS trusts have this mechanism.
As a grant finale to my email- can I thank you for your rant- it's the first time I have gathered myself together enough to do some writing for a many months, my spelling has gone to pott and its took my ages to correct. I'm not sure if it's the Niraparib, chemo brain or being just out of circulation for a while but I'm certain others may have encountered this fuzzyness - so here's hoping you have tempted me into being more proactive.
I pick up bags and sticky labels for test tubes at chemo. Then I go to local GP and they take bloods and attach hospitals stickers and put them in the bag to send off. This seems to work without a hitch. It all went wrong and bloods got lost in the ether the day something was required without me having a label from the hospital!
Hi, for the last 18 months I've been having my 4 weekly blood tests at my local GP surgery. ( saves 40 mile round trip) My oncology team send me the blood forms ( which have the name of the hospital I'm with, on the top) I then have phone consultation the next day with the results. So far none have gone missing. Its so important to our peace of mind that we have these results on time - every 4 weeks you stress out wondering if it's come back, so you don't need this extra, avoidable, anxiety. I hope they sort this out for you asap, or perhaps discus a better alternative for you. Sending hugs
That’s so frustrating. There are a couple of labs within my health system that are 2 miles from my house. I tried them at first, but they would be randomly closed with no reason given. I had results lost a couple of times. Another time I waited for an hour, there were 5 people in front of me, and they didn’t call anyone back the entire time. I have finally given up and I go to an efficient lab that is 20 miles away.
Losing blood test results is totally unacceptable. It's not your responsibility to have to find out how or why. The same thing happened to me recently. I have 3 monthly blood tests at my GP practice which is inside a cottage hospital. The main hospital where my oncologist is based sends the blood forms to me in advance. It meant I had to go back and get another blood test before they couldn't send out more meds. Luckily I had extra tablets already. Blood results shouldn't be getting lost. You need to make an official complaint. As some one else mentioned contact PALS and speak to your GP. I know how frustrating it is.
Theyve turned up. Oncology Nurses did a sterling job tracking them down.They do go above and beyond, wonderful lot ! All stable, I do hate the monthly stress the week before then hopefully the week after when they are good I relax and treat myself.
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CA125 results high again
Results for blood test.
