Phlebotomists at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch NHS Foundation Trust now provide a blood taking service closer to even more patient’s homes.
Community clinics are now available in 10 locations in the local area including Bearwood, Moordown, The Village and Strouden for patients who are already registered with the practices.
They also now provide five clinics a week at the Highcliffe Medical Practice in Christchurch.
This service operates Monday to Friday between 8am-12noon and provides 40 clinic slots a day, reducing the number of patients having to attend Christchurch Hospital for blood tests by around 800 in three months.
Hayley Flavell, Phlebotomy Manager, said: “We are delighted that we can now offer blood tests conducted by our highly trained phlebotomists in more accessible areas. Our results are only likely to improve further with the introduction of two more new phlebotomy services at Burton and Bransgore on the way.
“The Bournemouth and Christchurch Phlebotomy services have coped with an increasing year on year increase in work load. In 2014 we bled more than 260,000. This is an increase of over 30,000 patients since 2010, so these new services will prove vital.”
Paul Massey, Directorate Manager of Pathology and Cancer Care, said: “Expansion of community phlebotomy is an excellent example of working collaboratively with Primary Care to improve services for our patients.
“It allows patients to choose if they wish to have blood taken locally at their GP surgery and avoid a journey to hospital. We have had excellent feedback from patients using this appointment based service and hope to expand this model even further in the near future.”
