Why T3 not tested ..update following complaint

[Nutty56]

My last 2 requests for T3 to be checked were not undertaken by Lab . I formally complained to Royal Liverpool Uni Hosp and have received a reply , hope it may help others requesting T3

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Well done

Everyone should write letter of complaint if Ft3 is not done despite request by GP

[jimh111]

I've done the same and the hospital asks the GP to put the request in a specific part of the online form. Unfortunately, our vampires at the local surgery are becoming less intelligent and rarely know how to request fT3 (and fT4). I had an appointment a few weeks ago and as they didn't know how to request fT3 I declined having my blood taken. I was asked to book a GP telephone appointment and during this the GP was useless, I was asking for them to send me a copy of how it should be requested so I can show it at future appointments, GP kept saying it's easy, they will know what to do (i.e. they don't know). Will get round to booking another blood taking appointment some time and give it another try. The NHS just love wasting resources, I'm on the same dose as over the last decade, they will get the same numbers.

This problem arises because the hospitals ask the manufacturers to program the assay machines to automatically do TSH and do fT3 if TSH is low and fT4 if TSH is high (but never do fT3 and fT4). So, this process has to be manually overriden, the operators don't bother to read the whole form so usually fail to do their job.

fT3 assay is very cheap, I posted about it a few years ago healthunlocked.com/thyroidu... .

[Hylda2 in reply to jimh111]

my doctor asked hospital to test T3 twice by writing on form. Nothing

[jimh111 in reply to Hylda2]

You have to complain to the hospital. I feel the NHS is lazy and takes the path of least effort. They will only do fT3 if it is less work to do it than to handle all the complaints.

[Hylda2 in reply to jimh111]

self test using Medichecks and source my own t3!!

[PurpleNails Administrator in reply to jimh111]

I once had FT4 & FT3 tested and TSH wasn’t tested because as stated by nurse “Dr neglected to order it” (this was a hospital specialist).

To be fair it would almost undoubtedly be <0.01.  So it must be possible to just just tests FT4 & FT3 or perhaps the TSH was tested but not sent back? 

[jimh111 in reply to PurpleNails]

Yes, individual hormones can be tested but the machines are generally set up to do 'reflex' testing, do TSH and then do fT3 or fT4 depending on TSH. They have to overrule the machine to get things done.

[Nutty56 in reply to jimh111]

in fairness to my gp they did keep trying but was only the final conversation gp was told to physically write in on form to bypass automatic scan ?

[Hedgeree]

Thanks Nutty56,

That's useful to know.