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Poor organisation at reception

Posted By plutomw43

"Poor organisation at reception"

About: Tavistock Hospital

(as a service user),

Poor organisation at reception of phlebotomy service.

Visited early as recommended by my GP.

Had to wait outside the building for about 15 minutes on a chilly morning.

In the queue were several elderly people, some who were frail and finding it difficult to stand. 

There was no offer of wheelchairs or invitation to come inside the building.

On entering the building discovered that there was plenty of room to queue & we were waiting to be allocated a number, which could easily have been dispensed by a machine at the main entrance.

I feel that the whole system needs to be reorganised to make it a more welcoming experience and to cater for the needs of people, who by the very fact that they were there in the queue, were in need of support.

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Responses

Response from Lisa Townsend, Patient Experience Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 months ago
Lisa Townsend
Patient Experience Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

I take patient feedback and work with all departments at Royal Devon University Hospital NHS Trust to implement service change and improve the patient experience.

Submitted on 23/04/2025 at 13:33
Published on Care Opinion at 13:33

picture of Lisa Townsend

Dear Plutomw43

Thank you for getting in touch and I appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback. I am sorry you had a frustrating and chilly wait.

I cannot tell from the feedback above which community hospital this relates to. I would like to ensure that this feedback gets to the correct team so if you are able to pop back to the site and let me know the hospital I will ensure this happens.

Kind regards

Lisa

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Update posted by plutomw43 (a service user)

This was Plymouth University hospital, the phlebotomy department at Windsor House, Plymouth.

Response from Lisa Townsend, Patient Experience Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 2 months ago
Lisa Townsend
Patient Experience Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team,
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

I take patient feedback and work with all departments at Royal Devon University Hospital NHS Trust to implement service change and improve the patient experience.

Submitted on 24/04/2025 at 13:09
Published on Care Opinion at 13:09

picture of Lisa Townsend

Dear Plutomw43

Thank you for the update. That service doesn't sit with our Trust but I have notified the Care Opinion team so the correct people in that organisation will be alerted to your feedback.

Best wishes

Lisa

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Response from Alison Stanton, Complaints and PALS Manager, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust 4 weeks ago
Alison Stanton
Complaints and PALS Manager,
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

Submitted on 02/06/2025 at 08:49
Published on Care Opinion at 08:49

picture of Alison Stanton

Dear Plutomw43,

Thank you for your feedback on your experience with our community Phlebotomy service. I assure you that we take all feedback we receive seriously, and we sincerely apologise that your experience has not met the standard you expected.

Our community Phlebotomy service was recently relocated from the Futures Inn Hotel to a more appropriate clinical setting at Windsor House. The community Phlebotomy service is very popular and we understand that this may lead to patients arriving before the service opens. Unfortunately, we are unable to allow patients entry into the building before the Phlebotomy clinic opens at 8am.

Whilst we understand that queuing can be frustrating, all patients require to be registered at the Phlebotomy reception to ensure there is a valid blood request on our system. This process prevents any additional wait time for patients who might reach our phlebotomists only to find their clinician has not booked the request into the system to allow appropriate collection of samples for their investigations.

We are continually looking for ways to improve our services and we are working towards introducing an appointment booking system for patients. This will ensure that only those patients with investigations fully registered into the system attend the clinic and this will reduce waiting times for all patients throughout the day.

If you have any further concerns, please do contact our Phlebotomy team directly on 01752 430792.

Yours Faithfully

Pathology Phlebotomy Team

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