Madam, – The waiting time for a phlebotomy outpatient appointment for a routine GP fasting blood test at Beaumont Hospital (Louis O’Flaherty, June 25th) is regrettably far longer than we would wish.
However, your correspondent may not be aware that since December 2004 a GP courier service has been provided. This allows patients to have their blood test taken at their GP’s surgery instead of having to visit the hospital and gives the results back to all types of routine tests within two to three days at most. GPs can request same-day reporting for any urgent test and all abnormal results are immediately reported.
Beaumont supplies all the phlebotomy materials to the surgery, while collection and carriage of specimens is paid for by the HSE. The analysis is done by Beaumont’s Laboratory Directorate and the results are transferred electronically to the GP via Health Link, with follow-up printed reports by post. All of this is provided at no charge to the GP or to the patient.
The waiting time for a phlebotomy appointment for a routine, non-fasting blood test at Beaumont is 10 days. About 350 patients are seen by the Phlebotomy outpatient department each day. Of these, approximately 85 are GP referrals, with 20 appointments reserved for urgent tests, which GPs can book.
In 2003 Beaumont processed about 1.4 million laboratory requests, each typically comprising three to five individual tests. Last year we processed 1.9 million requests. In 2003 GP requests accounted for 8 per cent of our total lab activity. This increased to 17 per cent in 2005 and currently stands around 30 per cent. This growth has been much influenced by the provision of the GP courier service. It has not been accompanied by any corresponding increase in resources and there are a number of vacancies in the phlebotomy department at present. A national pathology review has been published by the HSE which includes recommendations concerning future provision of GP laboratory services. – Yours, etc,