HOSPITAL chiefs have denied claims that blood testing services at Kidderminster Hospital are on the verge of being axed.

Fears that patients would no longer be able to have blood tests at the hospital were sparked during talks with nursing staff over proposed changes to working methods.

Nurses were told that Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was looking at ways to improve the service, including carrying out more blood-tests on wards, clinics and elsewhere rather than requiring patients to visit the phlebotomy unit to give samples.

Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor said the discussions prompted nurses to fear the service would not be included in the new Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at the hospital, or that the service and jobs would be reduced. The talks included the idea that blood would be taken at GP clinics instead.

Trust spokesman Richard Haynes said: "The Trust is committed to providing a full phlebotomy service for patients at Kidderminster Hospital. There are no plans to reduce the number of staff there.

"We have discussed with members of the phlebotomy team possible changes in working practices which could help improve the service offered to Wyre Forest patients and which could be introduced when the first phase of the DTC is completed later this year.

"These changes might include more of the phlebotomy work being done on wards, in clinics or elsewhere rather than requiring patients to come to a particular place to provide a blood sample.

"However, there will also be a phlebotomy base in the out-patients department of the DTC."