Appointments

Your appointment

We provide appointments:

• face-to-face
• by telephone
• by video call

Face-to-face appointments

Please arrive 15 minutes before your appointment. Please make sure you are well hydrated, as we may ask for a urine sample.

We'll usually perform some blood tests before you see someone in our team with the results. Please allow 1 to 2 hours for your appointment if you're having blood tests.

If you arrive 20 minutes late for your appointment we may not see you.

If you do not attend, the team may try to call you for a telephone assessment instead.

Telephone appointments

These appointments will largely be follow-ups, or to support you if you live far from the hospital. The clinician will aim to call you within 1 hour of your time slot.

Video appointments

We offer video appointments for:

• teenage and young adult cancer patients
• some psychology appointments

These appointments will mainly be follow-ups.

We use Microsoft Teams for video consultations.

We'll send you a link to join your video appointment by text message 24 hours before your appointment, and again 1 hour before it's due to start.

For more information, please see our video appointments page.

If you're unable to connect by video the team will call you instead.

How to get an appointment

You can be referred by your GP, or another health professional. We aim to give you an appointment within 6 weeks of your referral.

Changing or cancelling your appointment

Phone: 020 7188 2724

Email: [email protected]

Please call us as soon as possible between 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

If you do not attend your appointment, you'll be offered another one. If you fail to turn up to that appointment we'll discharge you back to your GP.

Before your appointment

We may ask you to attend one of our community blood hubs to have a blood test. This will be 7 to 10 days before your telephone or video appointment. This helps reduce the number of visits you have to make to the hospital. It also allows us to have the results ready for your appointment, so we can diagnose and treat you quicker.

We'll contact you with instructions.

You can book your blood test online for outpatient appointments at:

• St Thomas’ Hospital (including Evelina London patients)
• Gracefield Gardens
• Tessa Jowell health centre

If you're a patient at the Cancer Centre, see the chemotherapy page for more information about coming for your blood test

You can also book an appointment for a blood test at Guy's Cancer at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. Please ask your clinical nurse specialist (CNS) if you want to do this.

During your appointment

You'll see one of our doctors, and may also see one of our nurses.

Appointments will take about 1 hour. If your condition is more complex, it could take several hours.

You may have:

• blood tests
• X-rays
• urine tests
• a bone marrow biopsy
• a CT or MRI scan
• a venesection (taking a pint of blood)

You may need to come back for more tests.

We may have visiting clinical undergraduates and post-graduates at your appointment.

After your appointment

At the end of your appointment, you can expect a diagnosis. We'll then discuss treatment options.

We'll send you and your GP a letter and treatment plan. You may receive these by text if you have a mobile number registered with us.

If you have any issues, please contact the secretary of the consultant you have seen.

If your problem is urgent, please contact your clinical nurse specialist on 020 7188 2724, option 5.

Anaemia patient initiated follow-up (PIFU)

If it's available for you, we'll ask if you want to be added to our list for patient initiated follow-up (PIFU) appointments.

This allows you to decide if you need to see us again after you've been discharged from our service.

Booking a follow-up appointment in the anaemia clinic

Please contact us if you're experiencing anaemia or iron deficiency symptoms which cannot be treated with iron tablets or oral liquid. 

Symptoms include: 

• increasing tiredness
• shortness of breath
• dizziness or lightheadedness

Phone: 020 7188 9807

We'll answer your call Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. If we're unable to answer your call, please leave a message.

Email: [email protected]

We aim to respond to your email within 2 working days.

For urgent issues out of hours, please phone 020 7188 7188 and ask to speak to the on-call haematology registrar.

If blood tests do not show you have an iron deficiency, we'll ask you to see your GP for further investigations.

The anaemia clinic is a corrective service. We will not be able to arrange tests to find the underlying cause of your iron deficiency. We will write to your GP if you need further investigations.