From 1st April 2025 Yelverton Surgery is stopping the facility of taking bloods on behalf of hospital colleagues.  From this date, if a consultant or specialist in hospital or other community service, such as mental health services, asks a patient to have a blood test this will need to be performed either directly by the requesting clinician, within the outpatient phlebotomy service in Derriford Hospital, or by using the Community Phlebotomy Hub at Windsor House, near B&Q on Tavistock Road, Derriford, Plymouth.

This will include blood tests requested before or after surgical procedures, chemotherapy or medication changes if the tests are requested by a clinician outside of the Surgery.

This decision has not been taken lightly and is based on concerns of ongoing patient safety and continuity of care.  For many years Yelverton Surgery has been asking Derriford Hospital to update their IT systems to allow results of blood tests to be sent to the requesting clinician regardless of where the blood test is physically taken.  Currently results of all blood tests taken in this surgery are returned to the GPs even if they did not ask for the test.  This is both confusing and unsafe as the reason for the test being requested is not always clear, nor is it clear that the results are being actioned by the specialist clinician who requested them.  In many situations test results are abnormal, leading to significant clinician concern and administrative effort to check the hospital teams are aware and are actioning the results of tests they originally requested.

Until such time that the Derriford Hospital IT systems can be updated Yelverton Surgery will signpost any patient who has been advised for a blood test by a specialist clinician back to the specialist service.

Whilst we appreciate that this will be inconvenient, please be assured that we are taking this step to ensure both patient safety and continuity of your care.