Hi,

I'm sorry you are going through this at such a difficult time. If I can try to put your mind at rest a little - firstly, GPs are asked to refer patients whose moles they are unsure about (rather than leave it to chance). Because it's difficult to check a mole on Facetime, your GP is following the correct procedure - it's being careful rather than them thinking it's serious.

Dermatology clinics are working differently at hospitals. Some are contacting referred patients & arranging for photos to be taken of the mole so they can examine them before deciding whether they need to see the patient face to face. Some hospitals are postponing seeing dermatology patients until things improve, especially as some dermatology staff are redeployed on other wards. Those dermatologists that are still seeing patients face to face are those whose departments are usually in a part of the hospital that is far from the Covid wards (my hospital's dermatology department is in a hospital annexe miles away from the Covid wards & the melanoma clinic is in the Oncology wing so it's quite safe to attend). 

Should you be seen face to face and the consultant states a biopsy is necessary, it probably won't be carried out for at least 8 weeks as all elective surgery is postponed for the moment. The usual waiting time for a biopsy excision is 4 weeks. The wait, from first finding the problem mole, will cause very little, if any, problem as to it getting worse (I left mine a year before getting it looked at and that was 24 years ago). 

Having said all this, there is a 75% chance that the dermatologist will look at the mole and say it's fine, so you may not have to go through any surgical procedure. So try not to panic at the moment. The NHS staff are being very careful to keep patients away from risk so I hope this helps. Good luck & please let us know how you get on,

Angie (melanoma patient)