The wait for NHS test results is cruel and anxiety inducing

[Summortime]

I had a routine NHS mammogram a week ago. Was told up to three weeks wait for the result. I cannot believe this is considered acceptable. In USA for example you can get the result within the next couple of days. My American colleague was shocked that here in the UK we are just expected to wait.

My anxiety is sky high. I appreciate this is a problem I need to get help with but if results were given in days rather than weeks my anxiety would not be so bad. It is the waiting that’s the worst.

How in a so called first world country is a long wait for test results considered acceptable?

Does your American colleague also get her mammogram for free? you do understand you're getting it all done on the National Health Service? I'm not sure you're appreciating the no of mammograms they have to do all at once as opposed to your odd checkup done privately in the US.

It's the NHS, free at the point of use, overstretched. I have to wait 10 days for the result of my 3 monthly scans to see if the cancer has grown so I understand your anxiety but you can't compare to the US where treatment has to be paid for.

It is free - be grateful and calm yourself down. Every other woman has to wait

I appreciate that you’re anxious but it really is a good turnaround when you consider the challenges.

As above, your American friend pays for her mammogram.
If you go private, you’ll get the results quicker, maybe even on the same day.

I've been waiting 7 weeks for mri results so 2-3 weeks isn't long to wait although I do appreciate it's tough when you have anxiety, I hope you have a positive outcome op

You can't compare it to America!

Lade I don’t get my mammograms for free, like most working people national insurance is automatically deducted from my payslip. A huge amount of my pay is deducted every month! I’ve been working for 30 years!

In my experience if there is something abnormal on the mammogram you will be contacted more quickly. I’ve been recalled twice. The first time I received a call asking me to come back and on the second occasion I received a letter within a few days.

So while I can’t offer a guarantee on this, the likelihood is that if you haven’t heard within a week you’ve been put on the pile for the routine ‘all ok’ pile.

Have you checked the NHS app in case the letter is already on there?

Sadly, three weeks is deemed to be a pretty fast return of results nowadays. For some types of test, patients are waiting several months for the results.

Genetic tests have a ridiculously long wait time of at least 18 months - and can take up to 2 years or more.

The whole “we get it for free rhetoric” doesn’t help. It’s not free, we pay national insurance. I’d like to opt out of the huge monthly national insurance I have no choice but to pay so I could go private.

3 weeks is fine for a routine mammogram, and it will probably be sooner.

My American friends work health insurance paid for her mammogram actually.

You could always go private, pay, and the wait for results would be much much shorter. Just like in the US.

I don't really understand this. It's not cruel, at all. It's actually really positive you're offered one for free. I appreciate you're nervous but that's not deliberate malice on the NHS. It's a stretched system and pre-emptive checks (such as prostate screenings and cervical smears) will inevitably have a degree of waiting.

IME, MRIs are screened first and if something is flagged they escalate fairly quicky. A longer wait usually means it's not urgent so in the queue to write the report. I'm always surprised at the detail that has to be covered. However I think after a month it's worth checking that it's still in the system so reach out to the department who did the MRI, failing that use PALs.

Op, I think 3 weeks for a routine screen to analyse and send the information isn't that bad. If you are so anxious then perhaps you need to pay for private.

For what it’s worth the law in the USA requires health insurance to pay for an annual screening mammogram after age 40. It’s free (along with a bunch of other preventative tests).

if you need follow up, you do pay for that according to the terms of your insurance.

if I go to the hospital clinic I get my results immediately after the test as I am high risk (this means I can get follow up done straight away).

also I can get all my test results online through the MyChart application.

If you think 3 weeks is bad, my mum was on a cancer pathway last year (the consultant said to her “we know it’s cancer we just don’t know what type”). She had about 5/6 procedures/tests over the course of about 7 months, some of them extremely invasive. Only after the last one was she told that actually she didn’t have cancer at all.

I had one in Aug, they said I’d receive my letter in 4 weeks. It was back in 10 days, all ok.
We used to live in Wales though and compared to the betsi cadwaladr health board…we’ve found the nhs in England better by miles.
It’s only routine, just tell yourself you’ve done the right thing attending, that’s what I do.

Sorry, you had a routine mammogram and your anxiety is sky high?

I don't think the three-week wait time is the problem here.

I actually compared with my BFF who lives in New York how much tax we pay and it came out to basically the same, and then she pays out thousands for health insurance on top. They have lower top line taxes but then they have all these state and city taxes and it all adds up.

Even though she's a professor who gets her health insurance through work, there's co-pays for everything. And it's a lot! She had to pay $1200 for glasses last month. 😱

I have unfortunately experienced US emergency care and I don't think the US is a system to yearn for. The French system, maybe, but not the US. The ER was like the NHS in the 80s; I was there one night and I woke up to a bill of almost $30,000.

The US private system is great, until the insurance company decides it’s not paying for your treatment any more.
You have to remember, all those health insurance companies are businesses whose prority is to make a profit.Providing healthcare is a means to an end.

Over a lifetime most people will be a cost to the tax payer, unless you are a super high earner, and then they tend to use private services such as schools and medical.

Think of the costs of child birth, child allowance, education, medical care for a family, vaccinations, schooling, pensions etc..I doubt you could afford to pay for that monthly out of your tax and NI

In the US it's common for women to have to defer scans during pregnancy because of costs. It's unbelievably sad and I'm forever grateful for the emergency care we get in the UK.

You do understand that National Insurance does not pay for the NHS?

It pays for pensions and benefits.

Thank you I have, they said there is a delay on reports I'm reassured it's nothing urgent but it also doesn't help my crippling migraines which they won't treat until I have the report