A new educational film helping patients to understand what happens to their blood sample and a recording of a special webinar about capillary sampling for patients with learning disabilities are now available to watch.
The film on The Journey of Your Blood Sample - PCSIG has been developed by Karen Perkins, Principal Clinical Scientist at UHMBT, in partnership with the Patient Centric Sampling Interest Group (PCSIG), as part of ongoing work to improve patient experience and support more accessible healthcare services.
The PCSIG is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, incorporated in the UK. It is a global collaborative collective of individuals and organisations that have a shared interest in promoting patient-centric sampling approaches. They are unified by their interest in facilitating the development and implementation of novel sample collection technologies for integration into standards of care.
Karen said the new film has been created for patients to see what happens during and after they have a blood sample taken. It was made when Karen was working with Janine Bebbington of Gorgeous Media in Lancaster on highly emotive a film titled Abigail’s Story, about a young patient with Down’s Syndrome and needle phobia.
“We are building resource here to help patients navigate sample collection and involvement in developing better healthcare pathways, with a focus on patient-centric sampling,” said Karen.
“While we can only offer limited capillary sampling to those with learning disabilities just now, this service will hopefully grow to become a reasonable adjustment across many patient groups in the future.”
PCSIG has also hosted a webinar on capillary sampling for patients with learning disabilities, organised in response to the huge demand for more information after a press release and film featuring Abigail went viral on UHMBT and NHS England’s social media channels, and in the media. The story is being featured on the BBC’s World Service, reaching tens of millions of people world-wide.
You can watch the Improving Access to Blood Tests for People With Learning Disabilities webinar hosted by Karen and the PCSIG team on YouTube.