SCA practice case · Telephone consultation
Women’s health: SCA practice case
A call about a breast screening letter
Telephone consultation
Adult patient
Someone else speaking
Typical
Ethnicity, culture & diversityInvestigations & resultsLong-term conditions & cancer
The candidate brief
This is what you would read in the 3-minute window before the patient connects. Read it once, note two or three hypotheses and one thing you must not miss, then stop.
Patient
Kulwinder Kaur Bains · 55-year-old woman
Setting
Telephone consultation returning a call from the patient’s husband, who asked reception to cancel her screening appointment.
Past history
- Type 2 diabetes (2018)
- Hypertension
- Three children (first pregnancy at 23); breastfed all three
Medication
- Metformin 1 g twice daily
- Amlodipine 5 mg once daily
Allergies
No known drug allergies
Recent notes
Breast screening programme: mammogram (second round) 12 days ago; letter sent offering an assessment clinic appointment next Thursday. Reception note this morning: “Husband called asking to cancel wife’s breast appointment as she doesn’t need it. Please call back.” Preferred language: Punjabi; speaks English; interpreter previously declined. HbA1c 54 mmol/mol three months ago.
Reason for contact
GP call back after a request from her husband to cancel her screening assessment appointment.
Practise this case
The full case is in the Hot Seat with the Gold plan. You get a 12-minute timer, a role-player script with facts released only when asked, examiner checkpoints by the three RCGP domains, a model consultation and the guidance behind it.
What this case tests
Show the learning points (spoiler: read after you have practised)
Breast screening recall causes intense anxiety, and family members sometimes try to make decisions for an adult woman. The GP must speak to her directly, check privacy and language, explain what recall means, and support her own decision. Here, gentle questioning uncovers skin tethering she has told no one about, which makes attendance urgent in its own right. The husband’s fear, from his sister’s death, deserves compassion, but it does not give him authority over her care.
The guidance behind it
Similar SCA cases
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