"Dermatology appointment not with dermatologist"

About: East Surrey Hospital / Dermatology East Surrey Hospital / General surgery

(as a service user),

I was referred to East Surrey dermatology department for a changing mole on my side (my GP thought it was a pyogenic granuloma, but could not be 100% certain).

East Surrey offered for me to use the MySkinDoctor app, which I did, as I thought this would be the better option during these times. The response was quick - they said they could also not make a certain diagnosis from the photos and would see me in clinic, where the lesion would be examined with a dermatoscope and would possibly be removed during the appointment.

I arrived at East Surrey Outpatients and went in for my appointment, only to be "blindsided" by the fact that my appointment was not with a dermatologist, but a general surgeon. They were unable to answer any of my questions and did not examine the lesion at all - they said they had just been instructed by dermatology to remove it. I was shocked by this, but felt I had no choice but to proceed and have the mole removed (whether it was actually necessary or not).

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Responses

Response from Ben Mearns, Chief of Medicine, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust 3 years ago
Ben Mearns
Chief of Medicine,
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Doctor

Submitted on 05/03/2021 at 11:50
Published on Care Opinion at 11:50


picture of Ben Mearns

Dear Julietmarie

Thank you for posting this.

I can imagine that this was quite a shocking thing to have to deal with and if you would like to email me your details on ben.mearns@nhs.net I will direct the Dermatology team to investigate this for you.

Prior to arrival for a minor operation like this I would expect you to be fully informed by the team and I am sorry that this did not happen.

I do hope that you are OK.

Best wishes

Ben

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