Aidan White (March) said he’d like more feedback about the new appointments system for blood tests recently introduced in Newham. I have a few comments based on my experience so far.

The introduction of the new online Swiftqueue booking system was not well publicised. Usually I might have received a text message about a change like this but I did not. I only found out by word of mouth.

As Aidan white reported, often the earliest available appointment is 2-3 weeks away. This is ok so long as people can plan ahead and get an appointment at the right time. Most of the blood tests I have are requested by hospital consultants, and ideally have to be done shortly before I am next seen in the clinic.

I am sure there will be cases where people haven’t managed to get blood tests done before they are next seen at a hospital clinic. This scenario is different to the one where a GP asks for blood tests to be done but there is no specific deadline.

I am on insulin and sometimes have to have fasting blood tests. In theory the Swiftqueue system should work better in that I can book an early morning appointment and be seen on time, and so don’t have to delay having my morning insulin for too long.

However, in practice, I wonder if it may be more difficult to get an early morning slot than previously, when it was just drop-in? It would have been nice to have some information on how fasting blood tests fit into the new appointments system.

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