Hi All,

Many people have my personal email and mobile.

This is for emergency use only if things are not going well and urgent help is required.

Viral loads are done in only a few laboratories and are only done once or twice a week. On average it takes 10 days for the results to come back and it can take up to 14 days.

You will hit viral load zero by 8 weeks, so while it is encouraging to see viral load zero the litmus test is what happens after you finish treatment. I know you would like the results ASAP but the volume of email, phone and SMS requests for blood results that simply do not exist, and are not expected to exist, is becoming a real problem.

Consider this, what for you it is a simple request is for me, or my staff, 10 minutes and by the time 12 people ask it is 2 hours. Today it was substantially more…..

I ring people personally to tell them about their viral load results within hours of them arriving. If you have not heard within 14 days of your blood test please do ring/email/SMS, otherwise please be patient. Although it is nice to know it makes no difference to your SVR and I need to prioritise things like seeing other patients who also need help, rather than chasing results that don’t exist.

Thank you for your understanding.