Meet Emma, ‘The Lakeside Vampire!’

General Practice Assistant, Emma Kibble, has been dubbed ‘The Lakeside Vampire’ by patients for her consistent ability to take blood quickly and painlessly!

Emma trained as a paramedic, before joining Lakeside’s Corby team in 2023. She was originally a healthcare assistant then moved to her current role two years ago. She looks after those on repeat prescriptions but without long term conditions and typically deals with up to a hundred patients a day, either booking their medication reviews with GPs and pharmacists or doing up to 35 individual blood tests. She has developed techniques for putting nervous patients at their ease including talking a lot to distract them and bribing them with a sticker!

Emma said: ‘Unfortunately due to health reasons I wasn’t able to complete my paramedic training, but I’ve always said if I can take blood in the back of an ambulance doing 90 down the M1 I can do them when someone sits there quite willingly giving me their arm!’

She recently spent 15 months completing a Level 3 apprenticeship in customer service and business administration: ‘It was very interesting to get into the depths of Lakeside as a company and to see how different teams link together, especially in my role. I was quite lucky with the way Fridays were dedicated as my apprenticeship day and Lakeside was happy for me to do Teams sessions when necessary.