The practice only requests blood tests and other pathology investigations that have been ordered by a Maples or PCN clinician for a general practice clinical reason. We are not able to transfer, action, or re-request blood tests or other pathology investigations that have been requested by another provider, whether an NHS hospital or a private consultant, regardless of which trust or organisation made the original request.
This is because results generated from a test request are only accessible to the party that made the request and the laboratory or provider carrying it out. If the practice were to submit the request in place of the original requesting clinician, the results would be returned to the practice rather than to the requesting hospital consultant or specialty team. The practice would then be responsible for manually forwarding those results on, outside of the usual pathology reporting and result-management pathway.
This creates a medico-legal risk: the practice would be assuming clinical responsibility for a result that falls outside a GP’s ordering rationale and outside the practice’s normal safety-netting and result-actioning processes, without having requested the test for a general practice clinical reason. It also means the result would not appear in the patient’s hospital record for review at their next hospital appointment, breaking continuity of care between primary and secondary care.
In addition, the practice is required to account for and clinically justify every test it requests, and a cost is incurred for each one. Requesting a test on behalf of another provider, for a reason unconnected to the patient’s care in general practice, does not meet this requirement.
For these medico-legal, clinical safety, and financial governance reasons, the practice is unable to accept or action blood test requests originating from another provider, regardless of which hospital, trust, or consultant made the request. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, but this is a necessary action. Patients should contact the hospital or clinic that requested the test directly and arrange this through their own phlebotomy or pathology service.