Test Results

Abbey Medical Centre (limited availability)

You can have your blood test done at the surgery - your blood test form will be saved on our computers. Please book an appointment via reception. 

Royal Free Hospital (children and adults under 65)

• Book your test if your GP has referred you to have a test
• Book your test if you are an outpatient and your consultant / nurse has referred you to have a test

You can also call us to book your appointment on: 020 7443 9757. The phone line is open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.

There will be no changes to paediatric, gynaecology or renal blood tests.

Adult blood test clinics run at the following times

• Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 5.30pm
• Saturday: 8am-1pm

Children's Blood Tests

For children aged 0 to 16. No appointment necessary, first come, first served.

Location: Paediatric out-patient department, Clinic One, 1st Floor

Opening hours

Monday to Friday 9am to 12:30pm and  1:30pm to 4pm (excluding bank holidays); no patients walking in during 1pm and 2pm and after 4pm will be seen

Telephone: 020 7794 0500 extension 33578

Private and Occupational Health Blood Tests

If a patient is seeing a specialist privately and they request blood tests it is often possible to arrange these blood tests via the NHS. However highly specialised blood tests, or blood tests which would not usually be arranged by a specialist seeing a patient for the same condition on the NHS, must be arranged privately by the patient.

If a patient requires blood tests or other testing for infectious diseases for their work as an occupational health requirement, we are only able to arrange this for NHS employees. In all other circumstances, patients must either arrange these tests through their employer’s occupational health provider - or, if they do not have access to occupational health, arrange for these tests to be performed privately.

The blood test use to diagnose diabetes is called HbA1c.

If your result is between 42 and 48, you do not have diabetes but this result is higher than expected and puts you in a category called “pre-diabetes”.

If you have pre-diabetes your blood sugar is raised beyond the normal range but it is not so high that you have diabetes. However, if you have pre-diabetes you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Around half of people with pre-diabetes will develop diabetes within ten years. It is also thought that having pre-diabetes increases your risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, peripheral arterial disease and stroke (cardiovascular diseases).

There is increasing evidence that if pre-diabetes is treated, the progression to diabetes can be prevented. Also, it may be possible to prevent cardiovascular disease from developing. So, it is important to know if you have pre-diabetes and to treat it in order to reduce your risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In general, the treatments for pre-diabetes do not involve taking medication.

NHS Camden runs a Diabetes Prevention Programme for both English speakers and non-English speakers. We  strongly recommend that anyone diagnosed with pre-diabetes finds out more about it and consider joining (you will need your blood test result and your NHS number in order to register):

Visit the Preventing Diabetes website

The information and the videos from the link below are useful to understand more about pre-diabetes and your health:

Visit the Patient Info website

Please do not hesitate to book a face-to-face or telephone appointment should you wish to discuss this further.

Cervical screening

Women in Camden and Islington can access cervical screening services through either their GP practice or at one of the family planning clinics. 

Women aged 25 to 64 years of age are invited for screening, in compliance with national policy as introduced in October 2003:

• Age 24 ½ : First invitation
• Age 25 to 49 : Invitations 3 yearly
• Age 50 to 64 : Invitations 5 yearly
• 65+ : Only those not screened since age 50 or who have had recent abnormal tests

It is estimated that in England cervical screening now saves approximately 4,500 lives per year and prevents up to 3,900 cases of cervical cancer per year in the UK.

In 2012, HPV testing was rolled out in Camden as part of the developing cervical screening programme. 

Find out more on the UK government website.

Breast screening

The Central & East London Breast Screening Service provides breast screening services for women in Camden (and other North London boroughs) who are over 50 years old.

Every three years, Camden resident women aged 50 to 70 are automatically invited to the breast screening service at Kentish Town Health Centre.

The programme will age extend in 2013 to include women aged 47 to 73.

Women that have missed an appointment can rebook at any time by calling 020 3758 2024  

There is also a website with lots of information, available in multiple formats and in different languages.

Bowel cancer screening

There is a national programme organised by NHS England for patients aged between 60 and 70 to screen for bowel cancer. You will be sent a kit in the post to screen for possible bowel cancer every 2 years. You follow the instructions and return the kit in the post in the package provided. Bowel cancer is a very treatable disease if caught early.

All the GP’s at the practice support the programme and urge you to take advantage of it. Many of our patients are already taking part and if you are hesitating we would encourage you to take part too or to speak to your GP.

See the Government website for further details

If you need to request a replacement kit, we do not keep any in the practice. Please ring 0800 707 6060.

Specimens

If your GP or nurse has asked you to drop in a sample (for example: a urine test, a stool test, a vaginal swab) and they have given you a form and label - you can drop the sample into the hole in the reception desk. Please drop samples in before 1pm, so that our courier can take them to the hospital laboratory in time for them to be analysed.

Do not drop unlabelled samples in to the hole in the reception desk.

If you have a urine sample that you would like to be tested routinely (for example - for a routine urine test during pregnancy; for a routine kidney test; if you suspect that you have a urine infection) please write your name and date of birth on the sample pot and tell one of our receptionists. They will ask a doctor or a nurse to test your sample and you will be informed of the result later on during the day.

Stool Specimens

To collect a stool sample: 

• Label the container with your name, date of birth and the date
• Place something in the toilet to catch the stool, such as a potty or an empty plastic food container, or spread clean newspaper or plastic wrap over the rim of the toilet
• Make sure the sample doesn’t touch the inside of the toilet
• Use the spoon or spatula that comes with the container to place the sample in a clean screw-top container and screw the lid shut
• If you’ve been given a container, aim to fill around a third of it (that’s about the size of a walnut if you’re using your own container)
• Put anything you used to collect the sample in a plastic bag, tie it up and put it the bin
• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm running water

Stool samples should be delivered as soon as possible as some cannot be analysed if they have been refrigerated (your doctor will tell you if this is the case). If you can’t hand the stool sample in immediately, you should store it in a fridge, but for no longer than 24 hours. Place the container in a sealed plastic bag first.

Urine Specimens

You can collect a urine sample at any time of day, unless your GP or practice nurse advises you otherwise.

The types of urine sample you might be asked for include a random specimen, first morning specimen or timed collection.

To collect a clean urine sample:

• Label the container with your name, date of birth and the date
• Wash your hands 
• Start to urinate, but don’t collect the first part of urine that comes out
• Collect a sample of urine "mid-stream" (see below) in a sterile screw-top container
• Screw the lid of the container shut
• Wash your hands thoroughly

If your doctor gives you any other instructions, follow these.

What is a mid-stream urine sample?

A mid-stream urine sample means that you don’t collect the first or last part of urine that comes out. This reduces the risk of the sample being contaminated with bacteria from:

• Your hands 
• The skin around the urethra (tube that carries urine out of the body)

Storing a urine sample until you hand it in

If you can’t hand your urine sample in within an hour, you should keep it in the fridge at around 4C (39F) for no longer than 24 hours. Put the container of urine in a sealed plastic bag first. If the urine sample isn’t kept in a fridge, the bacteria in it can multiply. If this happens, it could affect the test results. 

X-rays

If your GP asked you to have an X-ray, please take the form they give you to the X-ray department on the ground floor of the Royal Free Hospital. You do not need an appointment. The department is open from 9am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

Royal Free Hospital
Pond St
London
NW3 2QG

Other tests

Your GP may arrange other tests such as ultrasound, bone density scans, MRI or echocardiography. These will either be arranged through InHealth (a company which performs scans for the NHS at a number of different locations in North London) or one of the local NHS hospitals.

If you have not received an appointment for your test or scan within 2 weeks, please call one of the following numbers depending on where your GP referred you:

• InHealth (0333 003 1503).
• UCLH (020 3447 9070)
• Royal Free Hospital (020 7830 2036)
• St Marys Hospital (020 3312 6420)