Breast Clinic

The One Stop Rapid Diagnosis Breast Clinic is held on Tuesday mornings and afternoons and Friday mornings, meaning there is a maximum waiting time of three days from referral to appointment.

A dedicated team of specialists is on standby in the Clinic to care for your specific needs when you are worried about breast problems.

The professional team includes:

• A Consultant Breast Surgeon
• Mammography Specialist Radiographer (to take mammograms)
• A Consultant Radiologist (to read the result of mammograms and/or ultrasound scans)   
• Breast Care Nurse Specialist - Joanne Hill (to offer information, support and counselling)

The clinic is consultant led from referral to treatment, patients are fully supported throughout their journey by a specialist Breast Care consultant, consultant radiologist and specially trained Breast Care nurse. 

A Consultant Breast Surgeon will lead your care. During your visit the surgeon will examine you and where needed refer you for a Mammogram and/or Breast Ultrasound.

If necessary a fine needle test will be carried out to exclude any abnormalities within a lump that has been discovered, this sample will be taken and sent off for further testing.

Please be aware of the likelihood of some waiting time during your clinic visit to allow all tests to be performed.  

In most cases the result will be available on the day, but occasionally further tests are needed to give a conclusive result. If this should happen you will be given a date for your follow up appointment prior to leaving the clinic.

It is important to emphasise that more often that not the result will be normal and you will leave the clinic with complete peace of mind.

If however an abnormality is detected you will receive the immediate support of a breast care nurse counsellor and early access to treatment. 

The Rivers Hospital is one of the leading private hospitals in the UK and being just off the M11, it is easily accessible from London and the Home Counties. The hospital is located in Sawbridgeworth on the Essex/Hertfordshire border in beautiful countryside.

Services are Consultant led and flexible appointment times are offered, including out of hours. A rigorous vetting procedure ensures that only suitably qualified and experienced surgeons are granted practicing privileges.

We utilise state of the art technology with 3 Dimensional Mammography, being one of the only private hospitals in Hertfordshire to offer this. 

The benefits of this are:

• More accurate detection: By minimizing the impact of overlapping breast tissue, 3D mammography can make a breast cancer easier to spot. Reviewing multiple images has helped doctors find more cancers than with 2D images alone.
• Earlier diagnosis: Overlapping tissue can hide small cancers in a 2D scan. However, with 3D mammography, the image “slices” can be analysed one by one. This means 3D mammography may help detect cancers earlier than conventional mammography.
• Better detection in dense breast tissue: Dense breast tissue, often found in younger women under 40, can cause shadows due to overlapping tissue, which hides breast cancers from traditional 2D mammography. 3D mammography takes images of the breast from multiple angles, thereby offering a cutting-edge look through and around breast tissue

We offer competitive packages for those ladies who wish to self-pay to attend the rapid diagnostic clinic, if they do not have private medical insurance accordingly. The clinic is available to anyone with breast symptoms. You should contact your GP to seek referral to the clinic prior to booking your appointment on: 01279 602 675

Breast Screening

Well women who require a breast screening service should not book with the Rapid Diagnosis Breast Clinic but should seek the advice from their GP regarding a screening mammogram and / or breast ultrasound examination. To book an appointment for breast screening please call: 01279 602 624 (Radiology Department)