"It’s unreasonable"

I’m quite a moley person. I’ve had 3 off before and several photographed and discussed. Never anything sinister discovered, but they’ve been removed because of where they were as they’d rub or catch on clothing.

Last summer I had a new one on my cheek. Possibly irritated by my mask rubbing on it? Nevertheless I asked the gp for an opinion. He thought it was ok but sent me for a photograph of it due to my history. That was June and I heard nothing, not a thing! The gp said if I heard nothing it was good news, the picture would’ve been checked and no further action required. Further, when I attended medical illustration for the photo the week after seeing the gp I told the technician that it had changed and went back to “normal” (probably because I hadn’t been anywhere to wear my mask-so reinforcing my idea it was the hem irritating it) but she said I couldn’t add a note to the referral as it was already in. But, as I didn’t hear anything, I assumed all was well and the footnote was then irrelevant.

Fast forward to this year, 9 months later, and I get a letter to attend a dermatology clinic in hairmyres. I don’t want to go because the mole is back to “normal” and going to a hospital in the middle of a pandemic to sit and be told it’s normal seems a monumental waste of everyone’s time and resources. So I phoned the consultants secretary to ask for a telephone call to explain that I’m no longer concerned but I just wanted to know if the consultant was having seen the photo and was told no, it’s not possible.

I pressed and asked the secretary to ask the consultant for a telephone call. The secretary phoned back a short while later and said my request had been refused.

As I say, I’ve been several times to the skin clinic. I’ve sat numerous times and been told the mole is not a threat and just to keep it. I know what happens. I also know I don’t want to do it this time. I’m happy to make my own decisions on my healthcare but there’s one piece of information they’re refusing to share with me-from the photo did it look normal? They refuse to tell me unless I appear in front of them. And I think that is terrible to withhold information requested from a patient. I understand they’ll look at it through the magnifying glass if I attend the clinic, but I don’t think it’s necessary. I simply want to know if the photograph is concerning-and presumably it’s not because I heard nothing from them for 9 months?

As patients and service users we’ve heard repeatedly for a year that coronavirus has postponed this clinic, or that clinic, or this procedure, that procedure, this service etc etc yet when I as a patient say I’d like a telephone conversation due to coronavirus it’s apparently me who is being unreasonable.

I asked how to escalate and apparently there’s no way. There’s no way for me to make a complaint about this service and how I feel it’s unreasonable so I’m hoping that my comments here will be seen and the protocol reconsidered. Me attending would be such a waste of an appointment, my time and the consultants. Quite simply a sentence “I’m not concerned by what I saw in the photo” would’ve resolved this whole situation and I don’t think that’s much to ask.