[Clare.T]

Hello
I suspect you have fallen victim to the latest brilliant scheme so endearingly called 'caring closer to home' or something fatuous like that, which means in practice saving money and fobbing patients off with half baked 'experts', GPwSI, GPs with Special Interests.

St Thomas' Lupus Trust organised an all day seminar for GPs in the London area about cutaneous lupus. I think they sent out a couple of hundred invites but they only got half a dozen acceptances
I fear that when you accepted to be seen by one of these you might have forfeited your right to see a consultant but perhaps I have misunderstood how it works.

I would try to get a private consultation with a consultant dermatologist who also works at a NHS hospital, such as St John's which is the largest dermatology unit in the UK and associated with St Thomas'. There is also King's College London

Dermatology Consultants, Dermatology Specialists, at Private London Hospital - London Bridge Hospital

I'll have to finish this later because I haven't got my bookmarks organised as I thought - sorry !

Back soon!
Clare

 

[Clare.T]

I am pretty sure you don't need a GP referral for the London Lupus Centre.


Clare

 

[Clare.T]

I don't think a GP can legally refuse a referral to a private doctor because it would be depriving you access to a service that you are perfectly entitled to use, human rights and all that. However it is better to have some GP backing because they just might turn stroppy about prescribing or ordering blood tests.

I keep thinking about that doctor hacking away at your nailbed and wonder
if he seemed to know what sort of disease it can be a significant sign of.
I really don't have enough medical knowledge to make fair medical comment but it sounds crazy to me. I also think that a doctor who can't do a skin biopsy is pretty useless

Anyway there's a Professor Jonathan Barker who is also at the private London Lupus Centre, King's, St Thomas and St John's. If you call his secretary she might be able to advise on a suitable private doctor a colleague perhaps even if he himself can't help you.

http://www.londonbridgehospital.com/index.php/LBH/consultant-det/professor-jonathan-barker/


I don't know where you are, but in my Outer London borough, Sutton, I can access all the the major London Hospitals. They seem to have altered the Choose and Book so you can only access it when you have a referral number from your GP.

You can also call BAD, the unfortunate acronym of the British Association of Dermatologists.

Good Luck
Clare