Due to updated clinical guidelines, we are no longer able to provide sample bottles or accept urine samples from our patients unless the patient has been asked to provide one by a clinician.
If you feel you have a water/urinary tract infection, please contact us to ask for a call back to discuss the possible infection first. If the clinician feels a sample is needed, they will ask you to bring one in.
If a patient presents a urine sample to the reception team, the team has been instructed by the doctors to check that a sample has been requested. If it has not been requested, a phone call between the patient and a clinician will be arranged to clinically assess the situation.
We cannot accept any urine sample that has not been specifically requested. We cannot store samples for reasons of safety and clinical effectiveness. Any samples left without clinical approval will not be processed.
What are urine samples used for?
Your GP, or another healthcare professional, may ask for a urine sample to help them diagnose or rule out health conditions. Urine contains waste products that are filtered out of the body. If it contains anything unusual, this may indicate an underlying health condition. Common reasons for being asked to provide a urine sample include:
- To diagnose or monitor certain conditions such as type 2 diabetes
- To check for a urinary tract infection (UTI)
- To check for a sexually transmitted infection (STI)
- To confirm that you are pregnant
Some routine care appointments require you to provide a urine sample. You can do this on the day, but if you prefer to do this at home, then reception can provide a sample bottle for you. Please advise that you have been requested to provide a sample at an upcoming appointment.
What do I need to know about collecting a urine sample?
If you are in the practice your nurse or GP will give you a container and explain how to collect a sample. On certain occasions, you may be asked to provide a sample by letter or over the phone. In these instances, you can collect a container from our reception desk.
To collect a clean urine sample you should:
- Label the container with your name, date of birth and the date
- Wash your hands
- Wash your genitalia to avoid contamination
- Start to urinate, but don’t collect the first part of the urine that comes out
- Collect a sample of urine “mid-stream” in a sample container provided by the practice
- Screw the lid of the container shut
- Wash your hands thoroughly
If the sample is clean and properly labelled, you can drop the sample container at reception. If you are unable to deposit the sample within 1 hour, you should keep it in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge for no more than 24 hours to prevent bacteria multiplying and affecting the test results.
You can collect a urine sample at any time of the day, unless you have been advised otherwise. Please follow any instructions given to you.
What is a mid-stream urine sample?
A mid-stream urine sample means that you don’t collect the first part of urine that comes out, or the last part. This reduces the risk of the sample being contaminated from bacteria from:
- Your hands
- The skin around your urethra (the tube which carries urine around your body)
How long will I have to wait?
Many urine samples can be quickly analysed using dipstick analysis, so you should know the result the same day, or within 24 hours.
For some more complex tests, we need to send the sample off for laboratory testing at one of the local hospitals. In these instances, it might take up to 5 days for results to come back to the surgery. These are sent electronically and are check ed every day by our GP’s. If there is cause for concern, we will phone or write to you within 24 hours of receiving the result. We will not routinely inform you if the results are normal.
When is treatment with antimicrobials appropriate?
Urinary tract infections are the most common infections in primary care, but predicting the probability of UTI’s using symptoms and point-of-care tests can be inaccurate, leading to inappropriate antimicrobial use. It is our duty to clarify what it is appropriate to prescribe an antimicrobial; minimising the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in the community, therefore we require a clinician to speak to you before requesting you provide a sample and prescribing antibiotics.