lupus specialist

[Din]

Hi :wave:
Can anyone advise how you get referred to a lupus specialist.
My friend has asked her for her daughter Mary who is 15 and has just been diagnosed with SLE and Lupus nephritis (her kidneys are in stage four of damage)to be referred to a lupus specialist as she is being treated for her kidney damage and not the lupus, she was told by her kidney specialist it was not cost efficient for her to be referred. We are very confused to this answer. Can anyone explain?
and does anyone know how we can get a referral.
We live in South Wales UK
Thank you
Din

[Lily]

Hi Din and welcome,

told by her kidney specialist it was not cost efficient for her to be referred


er this statement seems absurd but maybe we arent getting the whole picture. It would depend on what medications she is on for her Nephritis, if they are treating the underlying disease process and damping down her immune system then thats all a lupus specialist would do also.

If kidneys are the major problem then a Nephrologist sometimes handles the whole case as they have knowledge of the disease. Its hard to speculate about this without further insight into her particular circumstances.

I dont know a lot about your UK health system, but hopefully someone who does will come along. From what I've read here it may be possible to get the GP to refer the girl to St. Thomas's in London which has world reknowned Lupus experts. The mother could always ring or email them, the nurse would be able to help out with any queries and they have helped many here in the past. In this particular case I think I would want Dr. DeCruz on the job who works out of there though.

love
Lily