An 83-year-old man living in Derby was forced to queue before 7am at London Road Community Hospital after he was unable to rebook a blood test online.
Keith Pratt, who does not own a computer, previously had a blood test ahead of his first annual diabetes check-up since the beginning of the pandemic, only to find out the results had gone missing when he arrived at his appointment.
When Keith, a retired sales manager who lives in Sunny Hill, phoned his doctor to organise another blood test, he was told his only option was to book one online.
Keith said to Derbyshire Live: “I phoned them and I said that I wished to make an appointment and they said ‘you can’t, you’ve got to go online’.
“I told them that I can’t and that I haven’t got a computer and I don’t know how to go online. They said, ‘haven’t you got a friend who can do it for you?’ and I said, ‘no I haven’t and I’m not giving away my medical conditions to other people.'”
He eventually found out that his only option was to attend a walk-in clinic which, for him, meant queuing at London Road Community Hospital early on Friday morning (22 October).
Keith had to attend London Road Community Hospital early in the morning
(Image: Derby Telegraph)
“I phoned up the Community Hospital and they told me ‘If you come in at 7 o’clock in the morning, we most likely will be able to see you.
“I went in at 6:50am and there was four people there already.”
Keith feels that people without internet access are being overlooked when it comes to accessing NHS services in Derbyshire. He said: “I’ve not got a computer and I am like thousands of other people who haven’t got a computer, not just older people like myself.
“Why can’t you phone up to make an appointment? You can’t do it, to me it is absolutely ridiculous.”
“I want to know because a friend of mine, only this week on Tuesday, went to Nottingham where she is being treated and went into the city hospital, walked into the blood department there, took her ticket and got seen.”
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A spokesperson from NHS Derby and Derbyshire told Derbyshire Live: “We are sorry that this gentleman has had difficulty obtaining a blood test.
“Several blood test sites have moved to an online-only booking system, but five sites also offer walk-in tests. These include:
Babington Hospital (8am – 3.30pm, Monday – Friday)
Coleman Health Centre, Derby (8am – 3.30pm, Monday – Friday)
St Oswald’s Hospital, Ashbourne (8am – 12.30pm, Tuesday & Thursday)
London Rd Community Hospital, Derby (7am – 4.15pm, Monday – Friday)
Royal Derby Hospital (7am – 4.15pm, Monday – Friday)
We would encourage patients to book an appointment where they can, to reduce delays.”
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Keith told Derbyshire Live that he was told to go to a walk-in centre to which he says: “Have you ever been to the walk-in centre? It’s absolutely ridiculous, plus the fact that there’s no parking.
“Well there is parking but it is so limited and I am partly disabled so I can’t walk very far so the idea of going down there is a no no.”
Although Keith has now been able to get a blood test, he said: “I still think something should be done, something should be looked into because by the sounds of it, it is something local to Derby.”
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https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/elderly-man-without-computer-stuck-6121612
