Appointments

Your appointment

We offer telephone or face-to-face appointments.

How to get an appointment

You'll usually be referred by your kidney specialist or diabetes team if you're diabetic.

Your GP can arrange a referral in some cases.

We see people who live close to our hospitals and community centres. Our kidney dialysis referrals page has more information.

Changing or cancelling your appointment

Phone: 020 7188 8820

Email: [email protected]

Before your appointment

If you're a new patient you do not need to have a blood test before your appointment.

If you're an existing patient you do need to have a blood test to help your clinician review your condition. If you're having a face-to-face appointment, it will be done then.

If you're having a telephone appointment, you need to have blood tests and a blood pressure check in the week before the appointment. You can arrange these using the DrDoctor website or call:

• 020 7188 8820 for Guy's Hospital
• 020 8068 0500 for Sidcup kidney treatment centre
• 020 7188 0842 for Tunbridge Wells kidney treatment centre

During your appointment

A kidney consultant or specialist nurse will see you. Your appointment will usually last around 20 to 30 minutes. We'll discuss your medicines and future treatment options with you.

For phone appointments, we'll call you as close to your appointment time as possible. However, our clinics are very busy and the call might be earlier or later than the appointment time. If we cannot contact you, we’ll leave a voicemail message telling you we've called and arrange another appointment.

We'll arrange a follow-up appointment before you leave the clinic.

Hospital-only medicines (including immunosuppression)

Please organise requests for hospital-only medicines during your outpatient appointment, making sure you have enough to take until your next appointment.

These prescribed medicines can be picked up from Boots Pharmacy Harrison Wing at Guy's Hospital, Tunbridge Wells Kidney Treatment Centre, or Sidcup Kidney Treatment Centre. If you cannot collect your medicines, please tell the clinician during your appointment and we will arrange for the medications to be posted to you.

If you have your medicines delivered by Healthcare at Home, any changes to your medication will be reflected in your next delivery.

For questions or urgent requests for medicines outside of your scheduled appointments, please email [email protected].

This email address is monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm and a member of staff will respond to you within 3 working days.

Always tell us at least 2 weeks before you run out of a medicines so we can arrange a prescription for you.

After your appointment

We'll write to your GP and any other specialists involved in your care. We'll send a copy of this letter to you. The letter will highlight any changes needed to your medicines and any discussions about treatment.