Breast scan. No medical advice

.j.e.j

suki1964 wrote: »

It's part of the national screening program. All women are sent an invite between the age of 50 and 54, then every 3 years after till they are 70. If you don't want the appointment of its not at a convenient time you ring them

How odd. With smears, they send a reminder letter and you book the appointment yourself. They don't just book an appointment for you! Sounds a bit coercive to me, even though it's possible to cancel it, the onus is on the patient to be assertive enough to do that. Seems wrong to me.

ETA I wouldn't be surprised if they get a lot of no-shows, which is a waste of their time and money.

Pollycat

.j.e.j wrote: »

How odd. With smears, they send a reminder letter and you book the appointment yourself. They don't just book an appointment for you! Sounds a bit coercive to me, even though it's possible to cancel it, the onus is on the patient to be assertive enough to do that. Seems wrong to me.

ETA I wouldn't be surprised if they get a lot of no-shows, which is a waste of their time and money.

Mammograms are a totally different setup to having a smear.

For a smear test, it's done by your own medical practice so it makes sense for you to make your own appointment.
Mammograms are done by a mobile unit (at least all mine have been) so they (I assume) look who is on the list in a certain area and arrange appointments.

I can't really see anything wrong personally.

I guess you could just not attend if you really didn't feel assertive enough not to call and cancel but that is a waste of NHS money.
When I've been, it's always been quite busy.
I don't know if there are any figures on missed appointments.

.j.e.j

Pollycat wrote: »

Mammograms are a totally different setup to having a smear.

For a smear test, it's done by your own medical practice so it makes sense for you to make your own appointment.
Mammograms are done by a mobile unit (at least all mine have been) so they (I assume) look who is on the list in a certain area and arrange appointments.

I can't really see anything wrong personally.

I guess you could just not attend if you really didn't feel assertive enough not to call and cancel but that is a waste of NHS money.
When I've been, it's always been quite busy.
I don't know if there are any figures on missed appointments.

Maybe it's easier for them to organise it like that, rather than risk having everyone turn up willy-nilly, but it would still be more ethical to say in the letter words to the effect of:

"the mobile screening unit will be in your area on XXXXX date. To book an appointment please telephone 0123456789"

What they are hoping for, I would think, is that people will see that they have an appointment already booked and go along for it. In psychology I think they call it a 'nudge'.

Torry_Quine

.j.e.j wrote: »

Maybe it's easier for them to organise it like that, rather than risk having everyone turn up willy-nilly, but it would still be more ethical to say in the letter words to the effect of:

"the mobile screening unit will be in your area on XXXXX date. To book an appointment please telephone 0123456789"

What they are hoping for, I would think, is that people will see that they have an appointment already booked and go along for it. In psychology I think they call it a 'nudge'.

It's not usually a mobile unit here as we have a breast screening centre.

suki1964

I cancel all appointments that are made for me unless it's a hospital one that I've agreed to have made for me


It amazes me that I can wait 12 weeks to get a GP appointment , yet they give me less then a weeks notice of blood pressure, blood tests and smears

Those are all done by the nurses and the practice gets paid a fortune for having done them. Yet I can't see a gp unless it's a medical emergency and even then it's not unknown to be directed to AE as they are "fully booked"

DUKE

I had to go to the hospital for my mammo, & had them every year for 5 years after the boob cancer. Although we also have a mobile breast unit too, I went for the first time last year. But I couldn't see any difference between the two, despite hospital staff saying it was a more thorough check at the hospital.

johnpereless

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was at stage 3.

triple_choc_chip

johnpereless wrote: »

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was at stage 3.

I'm so sorry to read that, good luck for you both; it can be beaten and some of us on here are proof of that but you must believe it 100%. x

Sncjw

Have you ever had an X-ray well your exposing your body to radiation through that

lollipopsarah

I got an appointment letter today for two weeks time at the local mobile unit, it took me longer to get a doctors appointment for blood test follow up appointment.
I will go as i;m gratefull for the check up.
xx