Communication of Test Results to Patients
After consulting with our clinical staff, you may be asked to undergo further tests. Any tests arranged by us at the surgery will be reviewed by our clinicians.
- If the results are normal – We will not routinely contact you to inform you personally. Normal blood test results will be automatically filed onto your medical records and other normal results, such as urine and stool tests, scans, and X-rays, will be reviewed by a clinician and manually filed.
- If the results are abnormal – We will contact you to inform you personally. Depending on the importance and urgency of the result, we may inform you of abnormal results through telephone calls, text messages, emails, or letters. Any abnormal results will be reviewed by the clinician who requested the test or by a covering clinician if the clinician is absent for any reason.
- If all test results are normal but you still have symptoms – We advise that you should contact us to request a follow-up conversation with the clinician who initially saw you. All filed results are available for you to see on your NHS App. Sometimes, the clinician will leave messages on the filed results to provide more information about slight abnormalities, such as slightly high cholesterol or slightly low vitamin D levels, all visible within the app.
- If the tests were requested by a hospital specialist – Our policy states that the clinician who requested the results is responsible for reviewing them and informing you. If you have undergone a test at the hospital’s request, your specialist should discuss the results with you. Since many hospital tests are specialised, we may not have the specific expertise to best interpret the results, and we will not be aware of the ongoing treatment plan. If you are waiting for results from the hospital, rest assured that they will contact you directly if it’s urgent. If it’s not urgent, they will arrange to discuss the results with you during a scheduled outpatient appointment. If you are worried that this hasn’t been organised, please contact the secretaries of the specialists you are seeing.
It’s important to note that we have a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection. We will only release test results to the person to whom they relate unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data or is not capable of understanding the results, such as in the case of dementia or a learning disability, in which case we will discuss the results with their next of kin.
