When a Riverside Practice clinician arranges for you to have tests taken within the practice, such as blood/stool/urine/sputum etc. the result/s usually come back about a week later, although this does depend on the sample taken and the pathology lab turnaround time.

If any of the results are abnormal the clinician will organise for you to be contacted by our receptionist team to request that an appointment is made or advise you of any action that may need to be taken.

Please do not worry if you are contacted. The doctor will have advised the team if you need to be seen urgently or if you actually need to come in or whether a telephone consultation would be sufficient.

If your results are normal you will not routinely be contacted. You are however welcome to call reception after 14.30 in the afternoons to confirm that your results are normal if you wish.

X-ray and scan reports can take longer than this to come back to your GP. As with all tests, if there is anything which your doctor wishes to discuss with you, you will be contacted by a member of the practice team.

Tests which are arranged by hospital consultants do not automatically come back to your GP until after you have seen the hospital doctor and have been given the result/s personally.

Patient Supplied Samples

Please remember that in order for us to process patient supplied samples (such as urine and stool) they must be supplied to us with all the paperwork completed and the sample itself clearly identified as instructed by your clinician.

Failure to do so will mean that we are unable to send your sample to the laboratory for testing.

A blood test is when a sample of blood is taken for testing in a laboratory. Blood tests have a wide range of uses and are one of the most common types of medical test. For example, a blood test can be used to:

• assess your general state of health
• confirm the presence of a bacterial or viral infection
• see how well certain organs, such as the liver and kidneys, are functioning

A blood test usually involves the phlebotomist taking a blood sample from a blood vessel in your arm and the usual place for a sample is the inside of the elbow or wrist, where the veins are relatively close to the surface. Blood samples from children are most commonly taken from the back of the hand. The childs hand will be anaesthetised (numbed) with a special cream before the sample is taken.

You can find out more about blood tests, their purpose and the way they are performed on the NHS Choices website.

An X-ray is a widely used diagnostic test to examine the inside of the body. X-rays are a very effective way of detecting problems with bones, such as fractures. They can also often identify problems with soft tissue, such as pneumonia or breast cancer.

If you have an X-ray, you will be asked to lie on a table or stand against a surface so that the part of your body being X-rayed is between the X-ray tube and the photographic plate.

An X-ray is usually carried out by a radiographer, a healthcare professional who specialises in using imaging technology, such as X-rays and ultrasound scanners.

You can find out more about x-ray tests, how they are performed, their function and the risks by visiting the NHS Choices website.