Mum had a blood test last week as part of her regular diabetes review. We got a call yesterday to take her to see the GP as a matter of urgency. Turns out she has a low red blood count. The GP launched ino the possibiliy of it being caused by bowel cancer, despite Mum having none of the usual symptoms and insisted on referring her to hospital. Mum has been anaemic in the past but hasn't taken iron tablets for the last couple of years. And she has leukaemia. I pointed out both of these things but got the impression that The System says that you have to refer a possible bowel cancer regardless of the patient's situation. Can anyone tell me what is the point of upsetting an 86 year old with vascular dementia, subjecting her to an invasive procedure and possibly far more drastic treatment? If there is a major problem what, if anything, will be done about it? Mum was quite agitated when we got home but hopefully by today she will have forgotten about seeing the GP and won't worry. She has a small skin cancer removed a couple of months ago and dealing with that was bad enough. I just want her to be peaceful and untroubled for as long as possible and medical investigations are not going to help.