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Mismanaged place and 7-10 Days for test results...

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"Mismanaged place and 7-10 Days for test results..."

Hard to believe that the only HIV test option takes 7-10 days to receive results. When I asked about rapid HIV testing done nearly everyplace else, I was told "we don't do that anymore. Not sure why".

For a throat swap test, you are given a swap and told to follow the directions on the wall but ignore part of them which are outdated (e.g. Swab in now supposed to be broken in half and placed in bottle versus being thriwn away as instructions on wall indicate)! The whole place seems a chaotic mess with a long wsit time for a booked appointment. While waiting, I received a text saying that a new appointment was confirmed for the exact same date/time. When I asked at the desk, I was told to ignore it as it just confirms that I have checked in. The questionaire at checkin is confusing and ambiguous if you expect an anonymous confidential test.

There are confusing tick boxes about what any information provided will be used for.

After asking at the desk, was told that all that is really required is a name, postcode and birthdate. Felt awkward and incomfortable at every step of the way despite having been routinely tested elsewhere. All these factors destroyed my confidence in the test results that I will hopefully receive in 7-10 days!

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Responses

Response from Mortimer Market Centre 6 years ago
Mortimer Market Centre

Submitted on 21/11/2017 at 17:38
Published on nhs.uk at 18:31

I am really sorry about this.

We have recently moved back to promoting the use of blood tests as standard for HIV testing because the test is more accurate. It is more reliable at picking up early HIV infection than point of care (rapid) testing is. Many of our patients come in for regular screening and we feel that this is the most appropriate test to offer as first choice.

We can do point of care (rapid) testing if requested and if the limitations are understood. We are usually taking blood for other reasons too. Therefore avoiding the need to do a point of care test in addition to blood testing helps to reduce waiting in the clinic and also means we can see more patients.

The turnaround time for HIV tests in the lab is 24 hours and we call patients with positive results the same day. When results are negative, they are sent within seven to 10 days but that should be addressed in the near future when we introduce our automatic negative test result text function.

I have checked and our posters about throat swabs have been updated; I’m sorry this hadn’t been done when you visited. At the moment, our booking system does send people a text message when they arrive and sign in at reception but this is an interim measure and I am sorry if it caused confusion.

We do need to collect information about demographics because it helps us understand the reach of the service and trends within that; this is standard practice across most sexual health services.

Again, I am really sorry that you had a bad experience with us and I will look in to all of this feedback so we can make improvements. If you would like to talk about this more, you can call me on 020 3317 5467. If I am unavailable, please leave your contact details and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Elizabeth Nelson-Smith

Interim Service Manager, Mortimer Market Centre

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