New blood test centre halves waiting times

The new blood test centre reception and interactive artwork to keep younger visitors entertained

Young people and families are benefiting from shorter waiting times for blood tests thanks to the new children’s blood test centre.

Since opening in September 2017, waiting times for children’s blood tests have been cut significantly. Families are now waiting less than half of the time they did before.

The new purpose-built space for blood tests has increased privacy and improved wheelchair access. It will benefit more than 22,000 children and young people who visit Evelina London for a blood test each year.

Grace Pinto, children’s phlebotomy (blood test) manager, said: “Being able to see families more quickly means children spend less time sitting and worrying about their blood test. The sooner we see them, the sooner they realise that having a blood test is nothing to be worried about. We’re really pleased to have been able to cut waiting times by around 20 minutes. We now have more space in a dedicated area to support young people.”

Blood test services are provided by Viapath and the new centre is now located on the ground floor, South Wing in St Thomas’ Hospital, next to the adult blood test centre.

The children’s blood test centre is just one of the new spaces opened as part of the ‘Evelina London is growing’ programme, expanding our hospital to meet the needs of the families we care for.

A new Penguin outpatients unit also opened in 2017. The unit has increased space to support the growing renal (kidney) and rheumatology services expected to see almost 2,000 children and young people for clinic appointments each year. Penguin has 12 clinic rooms, a treatment room, a private family space and a dedicated physiotherapy gym for rheumatology patients.

Since our award-winning children’s hospital building first opened its doors, the number of children and young people we care for each year has more than doubled.

We are growing our hospital in order to provide outstanding healthcare for children and young people, meeting their needs now and in the future.

As part of the ‘Evelina London is growing’ programme there are a number of building projects planned and in progress. Some of these works include expanding beyond the walls of our children’s hospital.

See photographs of the new spaces, find out more about Evelina London's future plans and keep up to date.