New patients at Litchdon will be registered with a named GP partner. We encourage all our patients to book with their own GP, when possible. This is so you can build a rapport, and it allows us to deliver continuity of care which benefits both GP and patient.

We are often asked by secondary care to undertake blood tests on behalf of secondary care at the medical centre.

This is something we are happy to do as it is often easier for the patient and reduces unnecessary travel.

However, we will only undertake these bloods tests under certain conditions.

These are laid out in more detail in the Community Phlebotomy Local Enhanced Service (agreed between local acute Trusts).

In brief, there are 2 essential requirements as laid out in this document

1. The patient must take responsibility for making the appointment- we cannot and will not do this on your or their behalf and 
2. The patient must attend with the appropriate 'form' or printed labels provided by secondary care.This ensures the correct tests are done and avoids the results coming back to us in Primary Care. If we generate the 'request’ the result has to come back to us for initial action and forwarding as appropriate. This creates unacceptable workload and clinical risk and therefore we need the results to go back to the original secondary care requester of the blood tests.

The process for secondary care requesting blood tests to be undertaken in Primary Care is simple and laid out here. In essence - a request needs to be made on Epic and identified as 'Community Collect'. The RDUH Community Phlebotomy Service will then send the necessary requisition and cover note to the patient. They can be contacted on 01395 519922 or email rde-tr.communityphlebotomyservice@nhs.net if further clarification is required.