We spoke to Dr Carwyn Jones from Furnace House Surgery in Carmarthen about his perceptions around narrative reporting. Carwyn was influential in prompting the change in reporting practice introduced in the Hywel Dda Microbiology Service:
Service users report real patient benefit as well as support for themselves in managing patients. Our data so far has been primarily in terms of urine specimens because these are the commonest laboratory specimen a bacteriology laboratory receives. However, in Hywel Dda the principle of narrative reporting has been used extensively on other specimen types and we will in time review these, as well as more formally looking at the impact with genital specimens in the North Wales programme and wound swabs in the Swansea Bay service. We will report further on these in due course.