"Covid swabbing prior to a hospital procedure"

All the staff were very helpful but I have a few suggestions. I was asked to carry out a home testing kit on the Friday in preparation for my hospital procedure on the Monday. I was sent the kit along with instructions. The instructions stated that the test should be dropped off at one of the various location within an hour of completing the test and to also drop off before 10am that day, which I did.

On the Saturday I got a call from the hospital questioning whether I had done the test or not which was rather worrying. It seemed the test had somehow gone missing.

I was asked to go to the drive through Covid test station at Barnstaple, that day to complete a 2nd test. The staff member (Sarah) I spoke to on the phone was very helpful and went above and beyond to help me. The other staff member (Kirsty) at the testing centre was also super helpful, so thank you for that.

Luckily both test results came back negative and I was able to have my procedure carried out on the Monday as planned.

My questions are: as there was little information on what the procedure is if a test does go missed, would it not be a good idea to make it clearer to patients that in this unlikely event the 2nd test will be prioritised so not to hold up any forth coming procedure or appointments?

I felt I had to push a little bit to find out if the test results would be back in time and after waiting so ,long for the actual procedure in the first place it would have been such a shame if it couldnt have gone ahead.

My other question is why are some patients given a home testing kit and some sent to the drive through, what are the distinctions and reasons for which type of test a patient is allocated?

My final thought is, the instructions that came through with the home testing kit stated to drop off the same day before 10am then on the bottom of the same page it stated 11am, has this not been proof read? I feel this could be quite misleading to some people.

Thank you again to all the staff who helped me on this occasion, you were all very helpful.

I would also like to say how nice it is to have the opportunity to call up Care Opinion and speak to an actual person to share my story/feedback rather than having to fill in a paper tick box form, and to know that I will also receive a response from staff is even better :-)