No sense of urgency!

I had gone to lancet to do urgent cardiac enzyme tests (troponins, which are markers for acute heart disease such as a 'heart attack'). These tests are used by clinicians to make very important decisions with regard to acute management. I had requested lancet to email me the results directly and my doctor had marked the test request form as urgent.

As a practicing clinician, these results are usually communicated to us within hours, irrespective of the lab that conducts the tests, due the urgent nature of the pathology in question.

My results were only sent to me 5 days later. My doctor wasn't even informed of the result until a week later. I had to obviously repeat these tests at another lab. Multiple phone calls to the lab proved to be unsuccessful.

As a medical service, I find it very hard to believe that no protocol is in place to communicate urgent results, especially when these results are grossly abnormal and require urgent intervention.

If I hadn't had the clinical insight, I would have probably not been able to type this review.

This kind of service is totally unacceptable and ********* to say the least.