Hey how are you, did you get an appointment date?

Hi, no I still haven’t got one through. The mole fortunately hasn’t changed in this time, but still a worry. When I call, NHS just keep saying they are really sorry but that waiting times are bad at the moment and they can’t give me a time. it’s not very comforting. 

Hi,

I'm aghast that it's a 24 week wait to be seen & also the same with a private dermatologist. I know that some parts of the country have worse waiting times but that's the worst I've heard of. I don't know where you live but would you be able to travel to another part of the country if you could find a private dermatologist with a shorter waiting list (it's harder to be referred to an NHS hospital in another county or country ie. from Scotland to England etc).

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)

Hi,

I'm aghast that it's a 24 week wait to be seen & also the same with a private dermatologist. I know that some parts of the country have worse waiting times but that's the worst I've heard of. I don't know where you live but would you be able to travel to another part of the country if you could find a private dermatologist with a shorter waiting list (it's harder to be referred to an NHS hospital in another county or country ie. from Scotland to England etc).

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)

I live in Aberdeen and have tried all private clinics in the area. I tried one near Glasgow and they were the same and also said the waiting times for skin cancer checks are really long. I would feel a bit better if they had done the biopsy and it was a longer wait. 24 weeks even for a biopsy result would be long, but I haven’t even got that far as yet so it feels a significant amount of time. 

reading online about how quickly things can go from bad to worse isn’t helping and I’m keeping an eye on it weekly, but even if I noticed a change I’m not sure it would improve the waiting time. 

I'm so sorry to hear that. The posts I'm reading about very long waiting times appear to be in Scotland. It sounds like it's an issue across the whole of Scotland & it's not acceptable. Sometimes we have to advocate for ourselves & start banging the drum to be heard. I would seriously consider contacting your local newspaper & local MP as, until everyone becomes aware of this, nothing is going to improve. 

Stu, I've sent you a friend request. If you accept it we can chat further about this by pm.