A MEDICAL clinic in Scotland has been surprised with an unusually high amount of "inappropriate or unsolicited" urine samples and has specifically asked local residents to stop sending them in.
In addition to being unrequested, the clinic in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, noted that the samples often came in non-medical household containers instead of the right sterile containers.
The main source of the problem appears to be older patients who want to be tested for urinary tract infections without first consulting with their doctor.
Each unsolicited sample handed in requires time and medical supplies to test in practice, then staff need to contact the patient for information, interpret the results, and potentially send the sample away for further testing, one doctor explained.
And it's not just the Scots who are taking the piss - there are reportedly several clinics in the UK that have had to put up signs asking patients not to bring in unsolicited urine samples.
"We really, really want patients to speak to a clinician for a proper medical assessment before we ask them to bring a sample in," an anonymous doctor was reported as saying in The Times of London.
"When they do, we will issue them with sample bottles to return, rather than random domestic containers which can sometimes be inappropriate."
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