Test results

Your doctor or another health professional might arrange for you to have a medical test to:

• Find out what’s causing your symptoms
• Screen for a specific condition or health problem 
• Check your general health
• Monitor a long term condition or if you are on certain medications 

The process and where you go to have your test will be different depending on the type of test.

Preparing for a test

The doctor or other health professional who arranges your test will tell you whether there are any specific instructions that you need to follow before your test.

It's important to follow the instructions you're given. If you don’t, it may affect the accuracy of the test and might mean your test needs to be delayed or carried out again.

Follow the links below for information on the NHS website about some tests and what you might need to do beforehand:

• Blood test
• X-ray
• Ultrasound scan

Getting your test results

We will usually get your results in one or two weeks, but it depends on the circumstances and type of test you have. 

An approximate number of working days for tests arranged by the surgery:

• Blood tests – two to six working days unless otherwise advised
• X-Ray – two weeks (but can take longer)
• Urine test – seven working days
• Stool (poo) test – seven working days
• Ultrasound – if ‘routine’ within six weeks, if urgent within two weeks
• Cancer investigations - one week

For investigations ordered by a hospital, please ask at the hospital how they intend to provide the result to you.

If you’re having a test for more than one condition, the results may come back at different times. 

If your results are normal

In line with standard NHS practice, we won’t contact you if your results are normal. 

If you haven’t heard anything in around two weeks (or the timescales mentioned above), you can assume your result is normal and we don't need to take any further action.

If we need to discuss your results

We will send you a text message or call you to explain what you need to do. If this happens, try not to worry. The doctor may have made some suggestions or advice based on your results even if there is not a significant problem.

View or request your test results online

You can see your test results online in one of the following ways. 

• Use our Patient Online Service (SystmOnline), if you are registered for this service. 
• Request your results using eConsult

If you don't have access to view or request your results online and feel that you must know the result of your test please leave seven working days after your test (and at least three weeks after an x-ray) before contacting us.

Please call between 2.30pm and 6pm, Monday and Tuesday or between 9.30am and 1pm Wednesday to Friday to speak to our team of medical secretaries to enquire about your test results.  

If you have opted in to receiving test results via SMS we have made some minor changes to the way we manage test results. Please be aware when getting test results via SMS you may receive more than one text as one blood test appointment can lead to multiple laboratory tests. Some of the results may be normal, some may not. You will get separate texts for each report and these may be different. Please note this is not a system error but occurs as the individual results arrive back at the practice separately. Some are quicker than others so there may be a gap between each text you receive.