I found a lump in one of my breasts late last month and went to the GP who did a physical exam and referred me under the 2 week rule to the breast clinic at the local hospital. GP tells me to chase up (via GP surgery) if I haven't had an appointment date within 2 weeks. My mother had ductal carcinoma 14 years ago and has just been diagnosed with recurrent stag IV metastatic breast cancer, so there's family history.
Wait 2 weeks without a call to arrange an appointment at the breast clinic, so I chase the GP - five times. After three weeks from the date of seeing the GP I get a call to set the appointment date at the hospital breast clinic - it's another week's wait. I'm told I've been booked into the 'one-stop' breast clinic and I'll have a physical exam, mammogram and, potentially, an ultrasound.
Get to the the appointment today: consultant gives me a physical, comments that she finds 'a nodule' and tells me she'll request a mammogram - for a future appointment and NOT as part of the 'one-stop' clinic I'd been told I was being booked into. I query this and she tells me simply: 'This isn't the one-stop clinic'. I tell her I was told, when the appointment was made, that I was being seen by the 'one-stop' clinic. She shrugs and tells me there's nothing she can do and neither can she give me any indication of when the mammogram might take place. This is despite her having also commented on the 'lump'/'nodule' that I'd found myself.
I end up having to come home and call my GP surgery who tell me that this 'sometimes' happens. I ask for clarification, because I'm sitting here at home, worried that I could be waiting an extended period of time - having found a 'lump'/'nodule' which has similarly been found by a hospital consultant, and with family history of breast cancer.
Get an email from the surgery this evening advising a mammogram could be between another 2-3 weeks away and an ultrasound up to a 12 week wait.
My feeling is that having seen my GP, who felt it necessary to refer me under the 2 week rule, all that's happened is that I'm now a month down the line and could be waiting another 3 weeks for things to move beyond a basic physical exam.
I know the NHS is fucked (and the email from my GP this evening essentially said the hospital trust is suffering from the effects of 'Covid, staff sickness and holidays'), but kicking me down the queue when I was sitting there in front of the consultant whilst she found the same lump in my breast and yet chose NOT to send me for a mammogram feels like a missed opportunity to me. I was one of only three patients waiting to be seen this morning when I arrived and I'd have been happy to wait any amount of time for a mammogram, too.
I feel as though I'm not being heard and my concerns are being dismissed. The GP's email basically said: 'call the hospital, we have no control over their triage procedures'.
Ultimately, I've found a lump in my breast and I may have ended up waiting the best part of two months before I get any concrete information on whether it's anything to worry about.
I don't know what to do and it's all I can think about.