Secret Shopper
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We check the vitamin D test service every month using real people around the UK.
This forms part of the quality assurance of the service and we hope is also of
educational benefit to our users.
January 2020 No. 2
Secret Shopper Audrey
An 89 year old great grandmother who after a stroke a year ago has been a care-home
resident in the South-West. She takes a daily Vitamin D supplement, and has done so for many
years. She has hardly been outside for over a year.
Comment:
Audrey’s daily supplements are clearly working well for her. She has achieved a level not only
of over 50 nmol/L but also over 75 nmol/L, which is a level that many suggest we should all be
aspiring to. She did better than Jen, the junior doctor below and one of her six grandchildren!
Turn round:
Considering the laboratory has had Christmas and New Year, not to mention special working
for social distancing, the turn-round of 4 working days is exceptionally good.
January 2020 No. 1
Secret Shopper Jen
A 31 year old hospital doctor in London currently working extra shifts in the back of an
ambulance helping transfer Covid-19 patients between ITUs. She is vegetarian and spends a
lot of time outdoors. She does not take vitamin supplements.
Comment:
Jen was surprised that she was deficient. She intends taking several 25 ug (1,000 IU) vitamin
D3 tablets/day to get her level up. We have offered her a retest next month.
Turn round:
The service is hugely busy at present. Considering this sample arrived just two days before
Christmas, a turn-round of 10 working days is pretty good. We have set up a second secret
shopper in January to see how things are going.
December 2020
Secret Shopper Chris
Chris was our second secret shopper from November. He sent his sample back the same time
as his wife, whose results are below. Unfortunately his spots were not very good and the
laboratory was not happy to analyse them and sent Chris a free of charge pack to try again.
Second time round his spots were just as bad - there was not enough blood to go right through
the filter paper. So…… the laboratory kindly sent Chris a third test pack, again free of charge.
This time Chris went the extra mile and there was enough blood on the card to analyse!
Comments:
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Chris has a reasonable level of Vitamin D at 56.1 nmol/L. However he does take two daily
supplements containing Vitamin D and he was a bit surprised it was not higher.
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The laboratory does not analyse samples that might give misleading results, but rather sends
out a fresh pack if there are concerns about the blood spot appearance. This can be for
samples that are insufficient, and also where it looks like there has been ‘overspotting’, that is
several drops of blood placed on top of each other.
Turn round - the return of the sample by first class post from Chris was reasonable
considering it was the week before Christmas. The laboratory turned the result round in less
than 3 working days which is excellent considering how busy they are with their work tripling
over the last year due to concerns about getting Vitamin D levels right during the pandemic.
November 2020
Secret Shoppers Judith & Chris
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We have two secret shoppers this month. Judith and Christopher live together in Kent and are
retired. They both take cod liver oil every day and also a multi-vitamin tablet. They put their
samples in the post at the same time in separate pre-paid envelopes.
Comments:
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Judith’s sample took over a week to arrive - the lab is experiencing some postal delays at
present. Once in the laboratory the sample was analysed in 4 working days and reported back
by email the same day. Considering the laboratory staff are all coping with the second lock-
down and a huge growth in workload, this is extremely impressive. Judith has a good level of
Vitamin D which would be expected from her long-term oral supplementation.
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Chris’s results have not come back yet which is not unusual. Chris and Judith’s samples may
have been on separate runs, or the lab may have needed to reanalyse Chris’s sample as they
wanted to check the result.
October 2020
Secret shopper Sue
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Su is a 28 year old female engineer who has worked mainly from home in Birmingham since
lock-down. She takes a 25ug (1,000 IU) tablet of Vitamin D3 daily.
Comments:
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Su has an adequate level but without her supplement she would almost certainly have been in
the ‘insufficiency’ category.
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Turn-round is at the upper end of the laboratory target, at 9 working days. The laboratory had
some machine problems in mid-October requiring a service engineer for the LC-MS/MS
equipment.
September 2020
Secret shopper Richard
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Richard is a 61 year old male, who works outdoors as a lawn care expert in
Warwickshire, and has never taken vitamin D supplements.
Comments:
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Laboratory: Turn round excellent at <2 working days in lab.
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Result: Richard’s level is in the ADEQUATE category. He was slightly
underwhelmed, as he thought his Vitamin D would be higher with all his time
outdoors over a sunny summer. He intends to take a supplement now through the
winter. We might use him again in March and see how his level kept up without
the sun.
BCPS-V. 2020/18/2
Last Updated: 8th January 2021
Review Date: 8th May 2021
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The lab reports below state the
date the sample was taken,
received in the laboratory and
tested. In blue we have added
the date the emailed result got
back to our Secret Shopper.
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Each report comes with a clear
interpretation as shown here.