NHS England have informed us that due to the global blood bottle shortage, all non-urgent blood tests need to be cancelled.
Urgent bloods include:
- Two-week wait referrals
- Those extremely overdue or essential for safe prescribing
- Those to prevent hospital admission
- Those to check for sepsis or other high risk conditions.
If you currently have a blood test booked, we will be in touch with you by text (if you have a mobile) if we have to cancel. If you don’t have a mobile, we will call you. If you don’t hear from us, the test is still booked.
If you have been asked to have a blood test before the 17th September, we will need to check whether it is urgent before booking you in, please call and speak to reception (ideally after 10am).
If you are asked to have a blood test from today – 3rd September onwards, the clinician will have already made the decision about whether it is urgent or not. If you’re not sure, please ask reception who will be able to check on your records.
NHS England have said they will have an update on the stock position on 17th September, so we will update this page then.
If we do have to cancel your blood test appointment, we will reinvite you when we are able to. If you have not yet booked and your test is not urgent, please keep checking this page or our website for the latest information.
Please note that the hospital is in the same position as us, so it is not possible to have an appointment there for non-urgent bloods.