PARENTS in the New Forest are having to drive their children to Southampton for blood tests as the Lymington clinic is no longer open to under-16s.

One mum, whose 13-year-old needs a blood test once a month, has hit out at health bosses as she now faces a two-hour, 30-mile round trip with her daughter.

Hampshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) says that it has stopped providing blood tests at its drop-in centre at Lymington New Forest Hospital to under 16s because of new healthcare guidelines.

The service for children is now offered only on one morning a week.

Deborah Martin, from New Milton, had taken daughter Charlotte to the Lymington centre since she was a toddler.

Charlotte, a pupil at Ballard School, has had arthritis since she was 18 months old and needs monthly blood tests to monitor her liver. She takes drugs normally used for cancer treatment to control inflammation in her joints, but these can affect liver function.

Full-time mum Deborah said: "You cannot just cut off children who have been having their blood taken by the same people for years.

"Charlotte is needle-phobic and had built up a relationship and trust with a nurse at Lymington.

"It's just ludicrous that we have to spend two hours just to get Charlotte's blood taken. It's so inconvenient. I wonder how many other people have been affected in the same way."

A spokesman for the PCT said that the hospital stopped providing blood tests for children as part of its phlebotomy service a couple of months ago to meet guidelines issued by the Healthcare Commission.

She said: "The phlebotomy service offered at Lymington is principally for adults.

"Although some local children use the service, the majority have always been treated at the Butterfly Clinic, a specialist children's centre at Southampton General Hospital.

"One of the reasons we refer children to a specialist centre is because to take blood from under-16s, phlebotomists need specific competencies.

"The Healthcare Commission has issued new standards so we have stopped the service principally for safety reasons."

Children's blood tests now take place at Lymington only on Tuesday mornings when a paediatric consultant is on site.