"Long time for biopsy result"

About: Gartnavel General Hospital / Endoscopy

(as the patient),

I had a gastroscopy in Sept 2024 at an NHS GG&C hospital.  They took a biopsy during the investigation and I was informed it would take 12 weeks to get the result. I felt this was far too long for a result to be reported but there was nothing I could do about it.  If no result in the 12 weeks I was asked to call back to the endoscopy dept.

Result did not arrive in the 12 weeks so I called back to endoscopy.  This was followed up by a second call 2 weeks later were I was advised to complain via a complaints e-mail (and also told the wait for results was now 16 weeks). I did this and managed to progress the report which was done around early January 2025. I still did not get the result as the report was sent to endoscopy who had to write me a letter explaining the result. 

I made two further phone calls to progress this and finally got the letter with my test results in mid Feb 2025 (it took 21 weeks; approx 5 months to get a biopsy result). 

Fortunately there was nothing sinister in the results but if there had been no-one would have known for months as the test was simply not looked at.

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Responses

Response from Margaret Barlow, Interim Lead Nurse, Endoscopy, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde last week
Margaret Barlow
Interim Lead Nurse, Endoscopy,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Submitted on 03/03/2025 at 11:46
Published on Care Opinion at 11:46


Hi Patient 50,

I am very sorry to hear that you had to wait so long for your results.

Unfortunately this service is run by the laboratories and any time scale is out with our control. As I do not have your details I am unable to check your report as an individual but happy for you to contact me direct if you would like to discuss further.

Regards Margaret Barlow

Margaret.Barlow2@nhs.scot

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Update posted by patient50 (the patient)

I received a response highlighting the reporting of biopsy results is outwith endoscopy's control, which I fully appreciate. However, I understand that my story had been shared with a number of NHS GGC staff and assumed that this would have included representatives of the laboratory service, who are responsible for reporting on biopsy results.

My reason for sharing my story was to highlight to NHS GGC that there is an issue with long waits for biopsy results - as they cannot fix things if they are unaware there is a problem.

Response from Nicole McInally, Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde last week
Nicole McInally
Patient Experience and Public Involvement Project Manager, PEPI,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Submitted on 04/03/2025 at 12:08
Published on Care Opinion at 12:08


picture of Nicole McInally

Dear Patient50

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience and highlight the issue regarding the wait times for biopsy results. Please accept our apologies for the length of time you waited and for the additional upset and distress this caused. Our Pathology Team are aware of the issues regarding biopsy reporting times and are actively looking at ways to reduce these. They have put in some additional measures to increase their reporting capacity.

Thank you for getting in touch.

Nicole

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