Hundreds of people miss out on medical treatment because they find it too difficult to make a doctor's appointment, research has found.
Other reasons given for avoiding help include fear, embarrassment and worry over wasting the doctor's time.
The research was conducted by Cancer Research UK in October and November last year to find out how people react when they development symptoms of illness.
It follows an identical survey two years previously and shows the number of people who said they had difficulty making an appointment rose from 36.7% to 42.7%.
The number of people who said they were too scared to visit the doctor fell by 6% to 21.7% over the two years, while those who said they were too embarrassed to make the trip fell marginally from 15.5% to 14.4%.
Linda Summerhayes, Scottish spokeswoman for Cancer Research UK, said: "The fact people now appear to be less scared or worried about what the doctor might find and be more knowledgeable about cancer symptoms suggests real progress in our fight to increase early diagnosis of the disease and prevent thousands of avoidable deaths.
"However, it's concerning to think that something as simple as making a doctor's appointment could be putting people off seeking help for a serious symptom.
"Further work is now needed to find out what lies at the heart of this issue - for example, whether people dislike not being able to see the same GP, if appointment times do not suit, or if the booking system is too complicated."
Cancer Research UK has been working with Tesco to raise £10 million to help with diagnosis and is part of the Scottish Government's Detect Cancer Early campaign.
The charity said about 29,400 people are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland every year and it wants to raise awareness of the early symptoms to improve survival rates.
