Hello
My husband has Stage 3b metastatic melanoma with spread to lymph nodes (3cm secondary tumour)and into the tissue of the parotid gland in his cheek. He has had surgery but despite this his oncologist says that further spread is inevitable and he is on Pembrolizumab and obviously it is very important that he attends his every 3 month appointments to be checked by a dermatologist for recurrence as this is quite a large tumour which had already spread outside the lymph node. His dermatologist has left and the CNS has told us that no other dermatologists within the hospital can see my husband (I see there is a 24 week waiting list for dermatology at this hospital). His appointment is now overdue and obviously we are worried that a recurrence is going to be potentially missed when swift treatment is needed in melanoma.
The CNS tells us that they do not get involved in helping with dermatology appointments and that there is no system in place to inform patients of when a new dermatologist is appointed but she fears it may be sometime as there is a nationwide shortage of dermatologists. So we have a situation where we don’t know when my husband will be given a dermatology appointment and have been told to complain to PALS - which we have done and so far are still waiting for someone to contact us. We have visited our GP and asked to be referred to the larger regional hospital (under the second opinion rule) where my husband had his surgery. There has been no response so far and the GP did not seem hopeful that the referral would be granted. That leaves my husband without dermatology care when NICE guideline state that Stage 3 melanoma patients should have dermatology checks every 3 months.
Surely the NHS is obliged to offer a 3 month dermatology appointment under these circumstances ? As I’ve said we are willing to travel to the larger hospital or even further afield.
If no NHS dermatologists are available, can we request that a private derm appointment be paid for by the NHS ?
Do patients have a right under the second opinion rule to have their treatment transferred to the hospital of their choice ? Particularly when it means that this would mean that the patient would then be treated by an oncologist who has experience in dealing with their type of cancer and cancer treatment. My husband is currently being treated by a clinical as opposed to a medical oncologist who normally deals with radiotherapy and chemotherapy rather than immunotherapy treatments.
Many thanks.
