"Generally you can rarely get an appt within 3..."

On Good Friday having been ill for several days and trying to sort it out by taking paracetamol but the symptoms obviously needed further intervention, I attended the walk in centre at the ICC to be told that they weren't treating anyone because they were too busy, My husband drove me to Rochdale Urgent Care where I was seen and blood tests taken within 30 minutes of arriving. I waited another 30 mins for the results of the blood test and was told I had a very serious bladder infection which needed antibiotics. I was prescribed antibiotics and co-codamol and told if the symptoms hadn't cleared by the Tuesday (5 days) to go to my GP and ask them to do repeat blood tests and compare them to the previous ones. On the Tuesday I rang to get an appointment but was told there wasn't one available until 7th May, 2 weeks hence. I explained the situation and asked if I could have the said blood tests, only to be told that it wasn't possible because I couldn't have a blood test without a referral from the hospital and as they had not stated this in the discharge letter to the GP it was not possible. As usual I did not bother to make an appt as I felt sure it would have cleared up in 3 weeks but I am at a loss as to why I needed a referral from the hospital. Consequently, still feeling unwell the following Saturday, I once again presented at the Urgent Care centre in Rochdale where they re-took a blood test and did a comparison; they were equally baffled as to why my GP surgery refused to do the test and could not understand me being told I needed a hospital referral. This is not the first time I have been refused a blood test by this surgery; as I have high blood pressure I have regular blood tests(once a year) and as it was coming up to the time my blood test was due, whilst visiting the practice nurse on another matter, I asked if I could book in my routine blood test but was told that I would have to wait another month because I had already had one in this year and because of funding I was only allowed to have one per year!