How does this finger prick home blood test work?
By placing the lancet against your finger, a hidden needle springs out to puncture your skin. The needle then safely pops back into the lancet device. The lancet is a sterile class 2 medical device.
How much blood is needed?
Typically, we will need 15-18 drops of blood for your home blood test. This equates to around 800 microlitres, or 0.8 millilitres. Visually, this is about 1/8 of a teaspoon – so not very much at all.
Is it accurate?
Yes, the tests are accurate and are tested by UK laboratories.
Does it hurt?
Yes it does a little. But having a finger prick home blood test hurts a lot less than a nurse extracting blood from your arm using a vacutainer needle. We’ve trialled five different lancets and supply the one that delivers the best results, enabling you to send a good quality sample to the lab.
What kind of home blood tests can be carried out with a fingerprick test?
As empowering as the blood test kits are, with a small quantity of blood there is a limit to the number of tests that may be performed on one sample. Additionally, the risk of the blood clotting is greater than with a traditional vacutainer sample, especially as the return to the laboratory is by post. We therefore exclude large profiles from this blood collection method, and exclude anything including or that is a part of liver function tests, electrolytes or full blood counts.
What if I don’t get enough blood?
About 15% of our customers that choose to provide a sample using the finger-prick method will fail to provide enough viable sample for the laboratory to analyse. The most common reason for failure is not reading the instructions, so we urge you to do this. If for some reason you cannot provide enough sample, we are happy to offer you the following options.
- TRY AGAIN - Another finger-prick kit can be sent out to you, we would need to charge a small administration fee of £5 as in our experience, if you have failed once with this method, you are very likely to fail again.
- REFUND - A 100% refund.
