"Disappointing lack of sensitive care and communication"

My daughter attended 1C of the Royal Hospital for Children for an out-patient procedure.  She has had the procedure twice before as part of management of a long term condition.

While seated in the very busy waiting area, a nurse came in and called my daughter’s name and starting to hand over a urine test kit. I queried if it was definitely for us as we have never had to do that before. The nurse kept just shrugging and saying yeh and saying they needed a urine sample. We were flanked on all sides by teenage boys and their parents, who understandably were looking over to see what was happening and my daughter was absolutely mortified.

After checking and double checking it was definitely for my daughter (they were only saying her first name), I suddenly realised that it could be a pregnancy screen. We took the kit and she gave the sample but she was incredibly embarrassed and upset by the public handover of the kit and the fact I had had to try to communicate to her that it definitely was for us, despite my original refusal and what it was for.  

The procedure itself was done with wonderful care and every other element of the experience was without incident, but I really was disappointed by how the testing had been carried out.  While I 100% appreciate the test had to be done, we didn’t even provide consent, let alone informed consent. In addition, handing over a urine test kit in such a public way seems very insensitive to the needs of patients.

I completely understand that clinical space is pressured and it would be impossible to take people into a room, but if we had been called over to the reception desk, the request could have been made privately and there would have been opportunity to sensitively explain what the test was for.