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?

Not true. I had a recall by letter. Maybe it depends where you live.

I'm in Sweden and we have national mass screening, every 2 years from when you turn 40. A big truck parks up in the healthcentre carpark. Everyone due that year gets scanned in the back of the truck. Results come in the post 3 or 4 weeks later.

Call backs are quick. I've been called back 3 times and the appointment has always been within a week of receiving the letter. The last time I had to have a biopsy and those results took a week. They rang me to tell me those results were in and set up an appointment for the next day.

There's Medicaid and private charity as well. I wouldn't say the US system is perfect, but on quality of care (given the fact you have money) it's better and faster.

Assuming you had a mammogram approximately a year ago, Have you worried for the last 11 months that you might have breast cancer? Or is the worrying somehow worse in the three weeks after the mammogram? Were you this worried for say the month or two before you had the mammogram, or does your anxiety only kick in once you have had it?

I wish people wouldn't just spout nonsense about how they think the NHS is funded... I used to work here and it's a really good overview of how it works:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/nhs-budget-nutshell

It's a routine scan - if there were problems they would let you know sooner. If you have to wait three weeks then it likely means there is no issue. I'd be happy to wait three weeks to be told I am perfectly fine. Anxiety is another thing and, as you say OP, you need to get help with that.

Oh god, another 'new account, look how shit the nhs is' poster.

I have only ever had one mammogram and that was due to finding a lump, obviously I was sent to hospital on the 3 week thingy. My results were instant (got the all clear). Most routine mammograms are done in the Mobil mammogram units? So I am guessing there is no one there trained to check over them, they have to be sent off and looked at. The wait time is similar for a smear test.

I don’t understand the issue of waiting when it’s a routine test? If you had concerns about an actually lump then your gp would send you to be checked out and the results would come quicker?

I know waiting is hard. I had a smear test come back as high risk, I then had to have a biopsy and wait for the results (I think it took 10 days in the end), it was stressful but mainly because my test had already come back as high risk. I tried to keep myself busy and not think about it too much, it wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome.

Very much the same as it is here then.

Sort your anxiety out OP. Waiting for test results is no biggie.

I do know that approximately 20% of the total income tax and NI contributions combined are spent on Health in England. And a starting cost for treatment for breast cancer is approximately £10k, rising to well over £100k so averaging £45k. If that figure is less than 20% of someone’s combined tax and NI contribution ((£225k) then yes, they’ve paid in more than the cost of their treatment. I doubt your average £30k a year earner would pay anything like that n tax / NI in their lifetime though.

I'm sorry you're anxious, OP, but don't be ridiculous. 3 weeks is not a long time to wait for a routine mammogram. Your NI goes towards much more than just your use of the NHS – it's state pension, maternity allowance, jobseekers allowance, bereavement benefit ... need I go on?

Actually if you've got good health insurance with your job in the states, your annual mammo is free as are other recurring "proactive" tests (colonoscopy, pap smear, annual bloodwork and complete metabolic panel, etc.) that may save the insurance company money in the long run if problems are caught early!

I agree with the concept of a small charge to all. However as the majority of no-shows are people in deprivation, and likely on benefits, if you don't charge them it won't fix the DNA rate. If you do try and charge them there will be uproar and cries of we are not protecting our most vulnerable. To all those MN that keep quoting we pay our NI for the NHS, clearly some of that goes to the NHS, but the majority is funding state pensions.
We need to get more people working and contributing NI in this country. There's too many who are just takers.

Do you have a NHS log in? I find the results for tests are usually on there in your medical records long before they get around to calling you. Mind you checking that everyday is just as anxiety inducing.

Out of interest, how do you think the mammogram result (or indeed any imaging) gets reported?

A lot of people don't realise that it's an actual doctor, specialising in radiology. So the radiographer does the scan. Anything worrying gets put to the top of the radiologist's pile to be reported more urgently. Some specialist radiographers are also able to read specific types of scan.

Some scans like chest X rays all doctors are expected to be able to interpret and so if you have an X ray in A&E, the doctor who is looking after you will give you immediate results. Those X-Rays do eventually get reported by a radiologist and a written report sent to the patients records, but often it takes many many weeks as they're not a priority. I feel like if you put it that way, a 3 week wait to see a hospital specialist isn't bad.

Not a mammogram but I had an ultrasound scan last year and I got told up to 3 weeks for the results and was called the next day (it was actually all within 24hrs of my scan) by my gp and was back very quickly for further scans. So I think they do have an overall review and if something looks bad you get notified quicker and then if not your results go to the double check and type it up pile (a very unmedical way of writing that!)

As others have said, in most cases the results come a lot faster (and are fast-tracked if abnormalities are seen by the radiographer).

For example - I recently had to have a repeat blood test as abnormalities were indicated on a routine one. Had it Friday morning - result (normal) was visible on my NHS app the following Monday.

Why have you been waiting 15 weeks? Do you mean you’re waiting to see a consultant following your scan? Why gas your GP not chased this up??

OP, it's on the NHS website that of every 100 women routinely screened, on average 4 are recalled. And even of those 4, 3 of them are found not to have cancer.

If there was a problem, you would almost certainly have heard by now. They would have phoned you or sent a letter. The 2-3 week wait is mainly down to the admin of sending "all ok" letters to the 96% of people screened. It doesn't take long to contact the 4%. They aim to have people on a treatment pathway within 28 days, so if they had seen anything concerning, they wouldn't wait 14-21 days before contacting you. So don't worry about it now.

I waited 26 weeks for my smear results and even longer for a colposcopy. I was made to feel like an inconvenience anytime I called to chase up either the results or the colposcopy appointment& laughed at when I asked if I could have pain relief for the colposcopy 🤯 painless procedure my backside 😭

Just wait until the big gobs start shouting that people who die, and some dont have a penny to their name and look down the sofa for spare change.

I 100% agree that the NHS is dead. There are massive time wasters, people who take no personal responsibility for their own health and who are often the ones who arent positive contributors to the pot. if you ahd to oay say £5 or £10 to see a Dr then maybe people who think more carefully.

A friends elderly Mum is always at the GP's. Pain in her head, feels a little unwell and last month called an ambulance because she thought she was having a heart attack. She is within walking distance of the surgery which I dont think helps. I know from my late Mum that elderly people are very health anxious. They also have the time to be 'checked out' by the surgery. I went to have my flu jab at the weekend and it was heaving. Two people were actually trying to grab a Dr who was doing the jabs to discuss a health issue 'whilst they were there'.

Its a complete bun fight now and dont get me started on the state of hospitals. My Late Mum was on a ward which was supposedly female. There was literally a wall between her and the MALE ward. One night a man dressed only in a pull up tried to get into bed with her. She screamed out and the nurse came and tried to make light of it and was even joking to the man about trying to find a new girlfriend. It was truly like a third world country.

We ALL need to put pressure on our MPs by writing to them and asking them to do more to support greater public investment and less private equity going into the NHS.

It’s probably already too late for some parts of the NHS to function without corporate commercial involvement now. And the amount of politicians with involvement and influence in healthcare companies makes it likely impossible that they’ll ever want to return it wholly to public control.

The NHS is SO fucked and I don’t blame any healthcare professionals leaving to work for better pay and conditions elsewhere.

I wonder if we’ll ever see the millions that Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman fraudulently swindled out of the NHS returned? That’s probably about as likely as it ever was that the ‘£30 million a month’ (or whatever it was) that the UK paid into the EU was ever going to go to the NHS!

Mumsnet seems to be in the minority. When you actually talk to people not hiding behind a keyboard who seem to hero worship the “free” NHS, the consensus is that people’s mental health in this country is destroyed by our healthcare system.

People 'hiding' behind keyboards as you put it, can be more honest though.

Therefore you're far more likely to come across people in your real life who just nod and agree when you're off on a rant.

I don't ignore the flaws but I'm also not going to ignore the fact that the only reason why my child is still with me today is thanks to the NHS.

I'm really pleased that your DC is now well, but ascribing that the "the NHS" is a bit odd. It falsely implies that your DC's outcome would have been different in other first world countries - yep, even the dreaded USA!. It's nonsense - decent healthcare and skilled clinicians likely saved your DC, the NHS is just the delivery model and I am not aware (having lived in FR, CH and the ME) of any country that does not provide free healthcare to children in life-threatening situations.

FWIW all of the above countries offered routine, preventative and emergency healthcare that was a country mile better, quicker, cleaner, more modern and patient-focused, than the NHS, in my experience. I am genuinely baffled by Brits' insistence on a Trabant-style healthcare system in which delays and obfuscation are consistently implicated in poor outcomes. I find people's reverence - and the aggressive way they defend poor practice - really "two minutes hate"-ish and dystopian.

OP I fully understand your concerns and your anxieties.
Is it acceptable to have to wait for 3 weeks for the results of a routine mammogram I would say they do their best in difficult circumstances.
I had to wait 3 weeks for the results of a biopsy and then on the day they were meant to ring with the results they rang to say the results were delayed and it would take another week
Please just try and take it one day at a time and don't think too far ahead there is nothing you can do about it, you are in the system and, unfortunately, all you can do is wait x