Barbara Castle Way Health Centre
Simmons Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, BB2 1AXContact details and opening times
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Review titled Incorrect and misleading information
Rated 1 star out of 5
by RIP - Posted on 19 July 2024
Had a very bad experience with the blood test clinic at Barbara Castle Way Health Centre. The centre runs a drop in clinic for blood tests, which can get very busy at certain times. Whilst I understand that decisions need to be made about changing the service to only urgent tests, my bad experience is related to getting incorrect advice on the phone. I rang on Wednesday and got told they are doing urgent tests only. They will do printing as normal tomorrow. I rang the centre again on Thursday before setting off at 3.07 pm to double check if they were doing routine blood test and was advised (after checking with another staff member - I could hear as I was on call) that yes they are running the service as normal and doing the routine blood test. When I reach the centre at 3.20, I see the notice for urgent blood tests only. I got told by the staff they will not do the routine blood test as they are busy and the notice was put way before I rang. They said they would check with the nurse if my test could be done because of the misleading information provided but got turned down saying it was the main reception who told you to come, don’t ring before coming. You should just turn as if 100s of people ring we can’t be advising everyone. Two points here: 1. The service is ineffective in providing accurate information on the phone. If I was informed over the phone about urgent tests only I would not have set off in the first place. People’s time and energy needs to be valued. 2. There is no procedure in place to raise concerns as advised by the staff member. If you are not happy they get you to fill a friends and family test card only. Highly recommend not to trust the advice you receive on the phone.
Visited July 2024
Review titled Barbara Castle Way Health Centre
Replied on 22 July 2024
Many thanks for taking the time to provide your feedback via the NHS Website regarding your recent visit to the blood test clinic at Barbara Castle Way Health Centre. Your feedback comments have been shared with the senior staff and the matron is very sorry that you were given misleading information on the telephone. Longer waiting times for the blood clinics are partially due to the implementation of a new electronic patient record system. The need to change from being able to see routine bloods to urgent only is likely to change several times throughout the day due to the sheer volume of people attending and may change in the time period from when you made your enquiry to arriving at the centre. I can only apologise that you were told that the urgent only sign had been placed up before your call. The reception staff have been working under a great amount of pressure as they get used to the new system and they may not have actually remembered when exactly the switch was made from routine to urgent only. Please be assured that the senior managers are working with the G.P. practices and our commissioners to find a more sustainable solution to being able to accommodate the number of patients requiring blood tests. In the meantime, we are encouraging anyone who has had a poor experience due to the long waiting times to alert us to this via the Customer Relations Team by telephone on 0800 587 2586, email complaints@elht.nhs.uk or if on site you can ask to speak with the matron for the treatment room and whoever is on duty will call you. The matrons are not always on site but if you give your details to the receptionist or the clinician seeing you they will pass them on. The service at Blackburn has recently joined the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust and will soon have a stock of Friends and Family cards on site so that anyone can relay their comments good or bad back to the service. Thank you again for your valuable feedback. Kind regards Sarah Ridehalgh Patient Experience Facilitator
Information supplied by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust