'No Radiologist avail bit we'll have a wee squint'

[medianewbie]

Sitting in outpatients. Was referred for mammogram & ultrasound by GP, who found a lump, letter marked 'Urgent: Suspected Cancer' (took me 3wks to get a GP appt then the referral was 'not typed up' for 2 weeks then a 4ww for this Hosp appt. (meanwhile I'm waiting on genetic screening results due to family history breast & ovarian cancer).

I've been here 90mins. I've had a manual examination, then been sent for a mammogram which was in a van at the back of the hospital (the in-house unit is broken). Fine, but I mobilise on double crutches & it was up steep metal steps. The HCP said there was no alternative available so I managed but I'm quite shaky now.

I've just been told 'no ultrasound avail today, as no Radiologist is in but 'we'll have a wee squint & call you in a week if any issues - the pain is probably just because you have large lumpy breasts- are you wearing a properly fitting bra'.
I am.

I was told I'd be seen in a one stop shop within the 2wk pathway. I appreciate the NHS is under strain but I don't feel reassured.

I'm going ask MNHQ to move this over to chat to see if I can get a quicker reply. I'm not asking for medical advice just whether what I'm being offered is standard/ reasonable in the circs?

Good luck, I've had the genetic screening for breast/ovarian cancer and finding out I wasn't carrying the gene was fantastic, more so for my children and GC than for me. I think I had to wait 2 weeks for the results so hopefully you will hear soon.

The wait you've had is awful and I hope they sort something out for you.

@ancientgran it's 2 months for the screening, but the 2ww for my lump is now nearly 2m too. I'm glad you had good results, I hope I will in time too.

I'm sure my screening came back in 2 weeks, it definitely wasn't 2 months. I suppose everything seems to be taking longer at the moment. I feel for you, I found a 2 week wait bad enough.

Actually I say it came back but actually the Consultant I was seeing phoned them and got the result faster than waiting for the written result. He was very proactive.

I have zero experience (other than referrals constantly not being typed up - this seems to be endemic from everything from hearing loss to bowel cancer IME) - but for your GP to say suspected cancer but the person handwaving this and saying "oh you probably just need a better bra" had my jaw on the floor. It's like they're not taking it seriously. I'm angry on your behalf and I would be writing to PALS to complain.

@BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers
Thank you.
I'm home now. Handwave person breezily said: 'had a quick squint, no worries at all but mammogram shows small change in density behind dimple area so we'll do an Ultrasound. No one available today so you'll have to come back tomorrow afternoon. They may decide to do a punch biopsy then. If not, I'll do one of the skin but I'm on call tomorrow so we'll need to get you back in next Friday. Then it'll be 1- 2 wks for biopsy results'. I was asked to take my bra back off so she could draw with a sharpie on my breast for tomorrow. I was struggling to do my bra back up as sitting in her office (it has 3 hooks at the back) & another comment was made about my breast size.

It is likely that the doctor working in breast clinic, while not a radiologist is very experienced at looking at mammograms.

Similar to a respiratory doctor being an expert in chest x-rays even though they aren't a radiologist, simply because they look at them all the time.

@AnnaMagnani I guess so yes.
I still think it's all been very slow & quite poor though.

I'm a lawyer working in tax. That doesn't mean I can do a tax accountant's job to a high level. I don't think it is very good practice. When I had a suspicious mammogram, I was at a specialist breast clinic the next day with all the specialists present and it really was a one stop shop and they gave me good news on the day., This was all free and funded. Of course, I wasn't in the UK and really it doesn't seem as if the NHS is much chop. I can't understand why English people seem to eulogise it because it seems to favour a really cheap penny pinching approach. I suppose that's why we have so many of your doctors working for us.

I’m sorry you’re going through this. My loved one had a tumour removed (not breast) nearly 2 months ago, we don’t know whether it’s cancerous or not as it’s sitting in the lab waiting to be tested. No one has gotten around it it yet! Things can be slow but the breast diagnostic clinics seem to be the one thing that still move quickly in the nhs as they have a good system in place.

it sounds like the person who looked knew what they were doing and were trained to read scans to some degree. I would rather a trained person looked and told me rather than left me not knowing although ideally you want the radiographer and your consultant there the same day!

I hope whatever was found has an innocent explanation, thinking of you at this difficult time