Sir, – In the 1990s when I lived in London, my annual cholesterol test involved me dropping into a local NHS hospital on my way to work, taking a ticket in the waiting area, giving my name to a laboratory assistant, who retrieved my details on a computer before taking a blood sample.The results were available from my GP within a week. All pretty simple.
Currently in Dublin to achieve the same result as a public patient I must contact my GP four to six weeks before my scheduled (now six-monthly) test, who issues me with a paper form to authorise the procedure. I then must phone the Mater hospital for an appointment (which will generally be given at a date and time that suits the hospital).
When I arrive at the hospital at the designated time with my form, I must take a number to wait my turn to register with a person who crosses my name off a paper list and then proceeds each time to input details from my doctor’s form into her computer before returning me to the waiting area, where I then wait again to be called by number to the room where another person writes my details in a book before printing off labels from a computer and taking a blood sample. The results are generally available from my GP within a week. What took a week to achieve in the 1990s takes up to two months in this country.
Surely blood testing within the public health system could be simplified and streamlined? – Yours, etc,