There are changes to where blood tests are taken in Deal and Herne Bay for some patients. Blood tests are part of the routine care that all general practices provide; and patients will continue to have local access to blood tests when needed.
Historically, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust has provided blood tests at Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in Herne Bay and Victoria Hospital in Deal, which some GP practices have used for their patients.
This arrangement is coming to a close and NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group is working with local GP practices to finalise where blood tests will be carried out in the future – this will be in existing hospitals sites or in their own practices.
We are sorry it has not been possible to confirm the exact arrangements for each patient and for the anxiety this has caused.
We would like to reassure patients the change in this service will not affect their ability to have blood tests when they are needed and guarantee that blood tests will still be available locally.
GP practices that are involved in the change will be communicating with patients to make sure they are aware of what they need to do, if anything, when the changeover happens.