Pathology result issues across Leeds

The laboratory at Leeds Teaching Hospitals trust (LTHT), which processes & reports on all the bloods tests taken across Leeds, had a system upgrade in early December 2024.

Due to problems with this upgrade:

1. Some blood test results have been delayed in being sent back to the practice

2. Some blood test results were sent to us in an incorrect format: so will take us longer to review back in the practice

3. Some blood samples have been lost or have been discarded due to delays in processing which means they will have to be repeated

4. There may be staggered delays within a set of tests, meaning reports may not be representative. for example, a result may be marked as ‘normal’, and this communicated to the patient, but further test elements are yet to arrive (and may be ‘abnormal’).

This has been a problem across Leeds with every GP practice having to do a lot of extra work, checking and so on. Alwoodley Medical Centre staff are facing a significant extra workload caused by this issue which is entirely outside our control. Please be assured that we are working through the extra work steadily and we will be in touch with patients as and when necessary.

Our preferred way for patients to know that their test results are back / and are normal, is by checking on the NHS App. You can see all your test results and your recent medical notes in the NHS App. It is downloadable from app stores.

If you had a blood test taken here at the practice more than 4 weeks ago and there are no results showing on the NHS App, please let us know via the Patch’s contact box (choose the ‘admin’ option). If you are not able to access the NHS App, then please do give us a call to check.

If you had a blood test taken here at the practice more than 4 weeks ago, and you cannot see ALL the results from it on the NHS App please let us know.

 West Yorkshire ICB, Leeds Local Medical Committee (which represents GPs) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust are working together to resolve the issues. However, Leeds General Practice feels this system upgrade has been poorly handled, resulting in a lot of extra work for practices at our busiest time of year. We will continue to post updates as we get them.

Should you wish to convey your feelings to LTHT, you can contact the Patient Advice Liaison Service- https://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/patients/support/feedback-complaints/

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Alwoodley Medical Centre