Asda presents supermarket clinic

Wal-Mart-owned Asda is offering customers blood tests in one of its UK stores in a bid to cut hospital waiting times.

 The instore clinic, funded by the
Health Service will carry out checks for a wide range of illnesses.
Around 30 patients attend each session at the retailer’s West
Bromwich store.

The Americans have been offering this
kind of service for about five years and it has proved very popular.
For Asda it was a natural step to expand the service and provide a
greater choice of location for patients who don't wish to come into
hospital, find a parking space and then have to queue for what is
such a quick procedure. Asda has a blood collection service which
operates three times a day, taking the blood back to the lab for
immediate testing and results are returned to patients' GPs very
quickly.

Asda said if the service proves
popular, the supermarket clinic could be extended from its Thursday
slot to five days a week.” The trust is also planning to offer
blood tests in the evenings and at weekends.