Angry I can't get an appointment with Gp. Pic of mole

[ontheup23]

Hey I have awful health anxiety after several really important things were missed with me in the last 7 years. I have had sepsis three times and was dismissed all three times. Needed surgery when I was told I had wind.... a belly full of blood.

I had a mole removed 5 years ago from my back and I had histology done on it too, privately.

A new mole which was literally a tiny spec 3 months ago has grown on the same size of my back approx 3 inches below.

In the last three months it's grown from like a pin prick to this.

I have asked for an appointment at GP to be told there are none left. Ring back end of month when they release the next batch of appointments.

E consult repeatedly down and not able to use it outside of doctors hours, being suspended due to too many requests.. you get the jist

Should I walk in tomorrow and ask for an urgent appointment for this? I have lost a tonne of weight and I have a low appetite but I am also depressed and I will own that.

Please any opinions on this, is it urgent?

I can't really afford to go and have this done privately again and also spend a whole day going to London, I would want histology if it was removed and I know that they would err on the side of caution and remove it anyway.

I opted to have the previous one bladed off and then cauterised but I did have histology, they said if it came back abnormal they would cut more out to be extra safe

Cancer runs in my family and I have young children, please can you put my mind at ease or give me the reassurance Ianbu to say this is fucking urgent

Obvious question, did the last one come back abnormal?

Sorry I read this and I wasn't clear in my post

It was normal completely normal
But it was like a juicy nearly black one that just got blacker over the years and much much more slowly
I had it since I could remember as a child and then I had it removed age 26 for reference

Some pharmacies do mole scanning to check for skin cancer, do you have anything like that available near you?

I've also used an online app for mole. One came up high risk and I sent a photo from the app to my gp and I got an appointment quickly. It was fine in the end but had it removed and sent away just in case.

@Aria2015 I don't know if my local pharmacy does that but I know the pharmacist well, I could go and see him tomorrow as he is closed now

Do you remember the name of the app?

I am really panicking as I just looked up the symptoms 🥹🥹 or the signs and I basically have all except the size but it was non existent the year before

I never really go in the sun and I am not sure how it grew I don't know if they grow in the sun or of their own accord

So worried and upset that I can't even submit a photo to my GP online, it's wrong!! They are awful, I have requested to join a surgery out of my area that accepts patients from a distance and they are highly rated, excellent intact. I really hope they say yes, I will find out by the end of next week.

My assigned Gp I haven't even ever met she's never ever available and always working at a&e when I have been there with my kids , meanwhile she is a partner at the practice and her grossly over inflated salary is on their website for all and sundry to see. She is not there full time and when I ask to see her I'm told she works from home.
Disgusting

Funny you should post about this OP. I've had a mole on my back for some time which has been changing shape and colour, became itchy, and started to bleed a few days ago. Same thing as you when trying to book a non urgent appointment, but after we discovered it was bleeding at the weekend, my DH called, and told them it was a mole which he was VERY concerned about, and sure enough, they fitted me in the same day. Thankfully the GP was able to reassure us that it was nothing to worry about, but if you are worried, then I would definitely request an urgent appointment.

Phone first thing in the morning, tell them you need an urgent appointment because you are concerned you might have skin cancer. Don't wait for a routine appointment for this. Hopefully it will be fine like your previous one but always best to get seen and make sure.

Email the practice and state in the email the above - and complain to the practice manager

I’m not a dermatologist (or any kind of doctor) but having had 20 + moles removed both privately and on the nhs I am fairly au fait with what the triggers are for removal. A new mole at your age with uneven contours and uneven colouring is pretty suspicious. However it’s not URGENT like heart attack urgent. If you can’t go private your route in to a Derm referral is your GP.

keep trying to get the gp appt : offer to email pic to receptionist to forward to duty doctor if econsult is down.

in parallel try and join a practice that triages its patients more effectively

most of all emphasise this is new and fast growing.

good luck

Yes OP make a fuss, tbh you don’t even need to see a GP you just need a referral to have it checked/removed.

In the midst of the pandemic I sent a pic of of mine and said it had changed and they took it really seriously. I sent a picture, they referred me to the hospital, had photos done of all my moles and they checked them all with the microscope. Appointment to have the dodgy one removed the next week and done. I know other friends have had much word experiences.

with the NHS you sometimes just have to ‘shout the loudest’ but it’s changed massively so needs a look

That seems an odd appointment system. Are there none available on the day? How does that work?

Do you have a practice nurse you could see rather than wait for the GP?

I have something similar on my back and I was able to see the nurse the same day but the wait for GP was a couple of weeks.

The nurse was able to see if it is a mole which need further attention or as in my case, a seborrheic wart.

Definitely push for an appointment but to my unqualified (but covered in the sodding things) eye, it looks and sounds like it could be seborrheic keratosis.

So they release non urgent appointments a few times a month, I think 2 times, and then the urgent ones you call at 8 am and they decide if it's urgent enough to be seen or if you need to call back and try again.

I don't have an email address for the practise. It's gross but maybe my husband talking to the receptionist would be a swaying factor,

I have Bennenden health as well but I would still need a refferal. I am so cross it's impossible to show them without first getting an appointment and that they are allowed to remove the e consult facility from their website as they wish and see fit

I'm fucking angry and scared

I'll go in tomorrow and tell them it's urgent,

I'm worried because they also wrote me a letter telling me they were giving me a formal warning after I report them to cqc a few months ago 🥹 for leaving me without medication I needed and take daily... despite requesting it in writing multiple times which I could evidence and also missing appointments they told me they would give me which I also had evidence of

Praying that the other surgery take me on

(@UpaladderwatchingTV as a side question : on what basis could the gp determine that a bleeding mole that had changed shape and colour was nothing to worry about without testing it? I’m not trying to worry you but your post worries me (having had an extensive family history of skin cancer and annual visits to my hospital Derm dept as I’m so high risk). Apologies again but I do feel I needed to say something having read that. Feel free to ignore as I’m not medical, just a concerned bystander!

How many times have you complained about them op?

They might be (for whatever reason) fed up with you but they should still see you if you have a valid reason.

In my area it’s possible for the GP to send the picture of the mole straight to the hospital. That was Chelsea & Westminster in London (in my particular area) but it makes sense if they have it elsewhere?

Can you suggest that to the receptionist. Maybe then the GP can just forward the picture and the hospital will contact you if they need to do further tests? It should take 5 minutes.

Once literally once to cqc after I didn't get anywhere with the practise manager, I had to go on holiday without a medication I take daily and have done for over a year.

Hi this looks like a sebhorric keratosis have you heard of them? I have tons they run in my family I’ve had several checked and some removed but all came back ok and removed ones were more because of rubbing and catching on stuff
they change colour and some have fallen off and gone from a one to flat! Some are multi coloured and some have gone darker/ or lighter
perhaps google them to get an idea if that’s what you’re could be
still get checked but not panic just yet

You could try the 24hour doctor service with Benenden for an opinion, which would add weight to your request for an urgent GP appt.

Please make a big, big fuss until you get it checked out, Hopefully it is nothing bad at all but they cannot possibly say that it is nothing to worry about by speaking to you over the phone . (I have had malignant melanoma) Sending kind thoughts and hopefully all will be well . You should not have to suffer this level of worry when a simple check or assessment could be done by a medical professional really quickly.

Thank you everyone I am so grateful for the replies and the suggestions to look up the keratosis too, I haven't heard of them, I went down a rabbit hole looking at the abcde ..

Good idea about the Gp with Bennenden!

And thank you for the kind words @Elodie09 I am so sorry to hear you have been suffering

So much love

First of all 'Ozziedream', can I thank you for your concern. I think the doctor called it 'seborrheic keratoses', which is apparently a mole that becomes more common as we age. He did have a very good look at it through, what I think is called a dermatoscope, and I felt that he was thorough enough for me to be confident in his diagnosis. However, thankfully my DH is very aware of these sort of things, so will continue to keep an eye on it.

@UpaladderwatchingTV if he had a dermascope then I’m much happier. Thank you for obliging my remote worrying for a stranger on the internet 😀

It's unclear what is happening when you phone at 8am every day to get the appointment. Do they run out every day before you are able to get through? Can you go in person at 8am?
I sometimes miss an appointment for even 2 days doing the 8am call thing but eventually get one. Top tip is to press ring 5 seconds before 8am.