Frequently asked questions

No. You do not need a referral from your NHS GP or a private doctor to book a test with The Livewell Syndicate. You can choose the health markers you want to check and book directly. That said, if you are experiencing severe or unexplained symptoms, we would always encourage you to consult a doctor as well.

It depends on the specific test you have ordered. Some tests, including certain cholesterol panels and blood glucose markers, require you to fast for 8 to 12 hours beforehand, drinking only water. Other tests require no preparation at all. You will receive clear, specific instructions when you book, and preparation requirements are also displayed on each product page. If you are in any doubt, contact us before collecting your sample.

Yes. We test adults aged 18 and over only. We do not test anyone under 18 and we cannot make exceptions, because testing children requires consent and safeguarding arrangements we do not currently provide. If you are looking for testing for someone under 18, speak to their GP.

Yes. Before any sample is taken you will complete a short medical history and sign an informed consent form. It takes a few minutes and covers what the test involves, what happens to your sample, and how your results reach you. If you want your results shared with anyone else, including your GP or your employer, that needs separate written consent from you.

Prior to any testing taking place, you will be explicitly asked about severe allergies, including reactions to latex or specific skin preparation products. If you have been prescribed an emergency adrenaline auto-injector such as an EpiPen for a severe, life-threatening allergy, you must bring it with you to your appointment. Our clinical team will not proceed without confirming this.

Only if they can consent for themselves.

We can only take a sample where the person having the test understands what is involved and agrees to it on the day. Consent cannot be given by anybody else, including a family member, an attorney under a Lasting Power of Attorney, or a court appointed deputy. If somebody is not able to consent for themselves, we will not proceed, and you should speak to their GP about any testing they clinically need.

You are very welcome to help a relative book, travel to and attend an appointment. Tell us when you book if they would like you with them.

Yes, and many of our clients do. Repeat testing is how you see a trend rather than a single snapshot.

We do apply judgement. Where a pattern of repeat testing does not look clinically justified, we may decline a booking and explain why. That is a duty of care decision rather than a commercial one, and we would rather have that conversation with you than simply take the money.

We offer four ways to collect your sample, designed to suit different preferences and circumstances. All four options deliver your results to BloodGPT, our secure online results portal.

• Finger prick home kit — We post a kit directly to you for self-collection at home. Simple, fast, and suitable for a wide range of biomarkers.
• Intravenous home kit — We post a venous collection kit to your address and you arrange a local phlebotomist to draw your sample. Suitable where a venous draw is required but you prefer not to travel to our clinic.
• Mobile nurse — We arrange a trained, insured nurse to visit you at your home or workplace through our nationwide mobile nurse network.
• Clinic visit — You can attend our clinic in Hull in person. Our clinical team will carry out the blood draw and all relevant checks on site.

Absolutely. Our mobile nurses follow exactly the same Infection Prevention and Control standards and clinical protocols in your home as they do in our clinic. All clinical waste and sharps are removed from your property by our team. We do not permit the disposal of blood-contaminated clinical waste in a domestic household bin.

Finger prick tests are clinically appropriate for a wide range of biomarkers and are used routinely in both NHS and private settings. However, certain markers, including hormones such as testosterone and cortisol, are more reliably measured from a venous sample. If accuracy on a specific marker is important to you, a venous draw via our mobile nurse or clinic is the better option. Our team can advise you before you order if you are unsure which collection method suits your chosen test.

Yes. Our finger prick and intravenous home kits are dispatched nationwide. Our mobile nurse network also operates beyond Hull, so nurse-assisted venous draws are available in many areas of the UK. Contact us to confirm coverage in your location before booking.

UKAS is the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, the national body responsible for assessing the competence of organisations that provide testing and calibration services. ISO 15189 is the international standard specifically for medical laboratories, covering sample handling, analytical processes, staff competence, and result reporting. Accreditation to this standard means that an independent body has assessed and confirmed the laboratory meets rigorous quality and competence requirements. Not every private testing provider works exclusively with ISO 15189 accredited laboratories. The Livewell Syndicate does.

Private blood testing as part of a workforce health screening programme gives employers early visibility of health trends that are otherwise invisible until they become problems. Conditions including anaemia, thyroid dysfunction, elevated cholesterol and vitamin deficiencies are common and frequently produce no symptoms at all.

Poor workforce health costs UK employers around £85 billion a year, and 148.8 million working days were lost to sickness in 2025 (Mayfield, 2025; Office for National Statistics, 2026). Finding something early is considerably cheaper than managing the absence that follows finding it late.

Yes. Private blood testing sits clearly within the definition of a health screening assessment for HMRC purposes and can be offered as a tangible, valued employee benefit at a relatively modest cost per head compared to most private healthcare benefits. It is a benefit employees can see, use, and understand, which improves uptake and perceived value relative to benefits that are rarely accessed.

We offer complete flexibility. Our mobile phlebotomy team can set up a private, temporary clinic at your premises, minimising staff downtime and maximising participation. Alternatively, we can provide your business with company booking codes, allowing employees to visit our Hull clinic or use a home collection kit at a time that suits them. For workforces spread across several sites, a combination of on site visits and home kits can be arranged.

Very little. To ensure patient privacy and clinical safety, all we require is a clean, well-lit, private room such as a meeting room, with a desk, two chairs, and access to a handwashing sink nearby. Our mobile team brings all clinical equipment, infection control supplies, and secure clinical waste containers. The room will be left exactly as we found it.

A standard blood draw takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes per person. Depending on the size of the team we deploy to your site, we can comfortably screen between 30 and 50 employees per day. For larger organisations, we can run multi day programmes across single or multiple sites.

Yes. We work with businesses ranging from owner managed companies to larger national organisations, and our screening programmes scale accordingly. Whether you are testing a single director or rolling out a programme across a workforce of several hundred, we can scope something that fits your requirements and your budget.

We contact the employee directly, as we would any patient. Their result goes to them and only to them. You will not be told, and we will not tell you, because the result is theirs and consent to share it is theirs to give.

What you can be confident of is that nobody who takes part in a screening you fund will be left to work out a serious result on their own.

No. We adhere strictly to UK GDPR and medical confidentiality obligations. Individual test results are confidential and are delivered securely and exclusively to the employee via BloodGPT. We will never share personal health data, individual results, or any identifying health information with an employer or HR department without the explicit, written and signed consent of the individual employee. This is not negotiable and forms part of our standard service agreement.

For larger screening programmes, we can provide your organisation with an anonymised aggregate report. All identifying information is removed. We provide high-level data on overall workforce health trends, for example the proportion of employees with suboptimal Vitamin D levels or elevated cardiovascular risk markers. This allows your HR or wellbeing teams to design targeted future health initiatives without any breach of individual privacy.