Your Visit

Reminders for Your Visit
  • Avoid antihistamine consumption for at least 5 days before your appointment.
  • Please do not bring foods that are well-known allergens such as nuts, shellfish or wheat into the clinic. The patients at London Allergy Care & Knowledge may have severe allergies that can be triggered even by the tiniest traces of food.
  • Please also avoid bringing foods that are likely to cause mess, such as crumbs.
  • Prepare and provide a complete list of the symptoms the patient is experiencing to help our medical team evaluate the proper treatment for the allergic reactions. For example, symptoms may include; sneezing, wheezing, coughing, itching, hives, gastrointestinal symptoms, and adverse reactions to certain types of food and drugs.
  • Please bring all medications currently being taken to your appointment, along with information about the dosage and duration of the treatment.
  • If using asthma spacer devices, please ensure that you bring these to your appointment.
  • Family history will also help us evaluate the patient’s condition, so please provide information if any family member experiences any form of allergic reaction such as asthma, hay fever, eczema, food and drug allergy etc.
  • Prepare a list of questions you may have. This ensures that you won’t forget any important concerns.
About Your Visit

Our medical team will ask you some basic questions about your personal medical history during your first visit. Preparing your answers in advance makes this process easier and more thorough, the topics for preparation are clarified below:

  • Symptoms
    Please write down any symptoms that the patient is presenting with; sneezing, wheezing, cough, itching, gastrointestinal symptoms, hives, adverse reactions to foods or drugs, or any other troublesome symptoms.
  • Medications
    Our medical team will want to know if you or your child is taking any type of medication. Please bring along the medication and information on exact dosage.
  • Family History
    Does your family have a history of asthma, hay fever, food allergy, eczema, drug allergy, insect sting allergy, etc? This information can be very helpful for diagnosis.
What happens during a typical appointment?
  • You will be met by an Allergy Nurse Specialist in the Waiting Room. She works with our medical team and will ask a few questions to determine which tests to perform.
  • The patient’s weight and height will then be measured.
  • The Allergy Nurse Specialist will then confirm which tests will be conducted and brief you on the processes and steps involved.
  • The Nurse may perform lung function measurements in older children and adults (the patient is asked to blow into a machine that measures the flow of air and may detect evidence of asthma changes) and will then perform allergy skin testing.
  • If a food allergy is diagnosed, the Nurse will educate and train you how to manage and treat the food allergy.
  • After about 20 minutes, you will be seen by our Medical Team who will take a more detailed history and perform an examination. They will then explain, in detail, the diagnosis alongside the management options and plans. Any questions you may have can be discussed at this point.
  • This opportunity to raise concern is not limited; you may ask as many questions as you wish. We recommend also bringing along a list of questions to the appointment.
  • If food allergies are diagnosed, our medical team may refer you to a Dietician or a Paediatric Dietician.
  • After the consultation, you may be sent for further testing. Chest x-rays and sinus MRI scan are done at the Portland Hospital. Allergy blood testing is usually done at TDL (76 Wimpole Street) and specific allergy profiles have been set up in a partnership with The Doctors Laboratory.
  • It is possible that you may require a further follow-up visit to review progress, discuss blood test results and complete any further skin prick testing that could not be completed at the first visit.
  • All of the Nurses at LACK have extensive adult and paediatric nursing experience.
Tips for Outpatient Visits
    1. Be Aware of Location Changes.
      Monday – Friday Clinics are held at the Portland Hospital.
      Saturday – Sunday Clinics are held at London Medical.
      Please check your email for location confirmation. This will be sent immediately after you have made your appointment. (Please check your junk folder if you do not see it in your main inbox).
    2. Ideally no antihistamines should be taken for at least 5 days prior to the appointment. Please refer to the antihistamine avoidance list for more information.
    3. Remember to bring the referral letter from your GP or Specialist as well as your insurance policy details and claims reference.
    4. Be prepared to update information, such as change of phone number, address, or email; GP’s name, address and phone number; insurance policy details and claims reference.
    5. Write down a list of questions and include a description of the patient’s symptoms.
    6. Bring all medications that the patient will require that day, as well as a list of all medications used ordinarily. Please also provide information on dosage and duration of the treatment. If used, please also bring along asthma spacer devices.
    7. Prepare for a history and thorough physical examination, allergy skin tests or breathing tests, discussion of the patient’s diagnosis, an outline of the treatment strategy and some educational materials. We try and keep waiting time to a minimum but, inevitably, there may be occasional delays due to the thoroughness of our approach. Bring along your child’s favourite toys, books or schoolwork. For babies and toddlers, remember to bring along extra nappies and formula.
    8. Bring food for your child. Patients seen in Professor Lack’s office often have severe food allergies and can react to tiny traces of food. Simple snacks such as carrots or a drink from a bottle or sealed cup are recommended. Please do not give your child any foods that crumble easily and could put the next patient at risk of an allergic reaction (i.e., biscuits, sandwiches).
    9. You may wish to bring another adult friend or relative to help with your child, especially if you’re bringing several children along to the consultation.
    10.  Know what the plan is before you leave the office. Will there be another appointment and when? Do you need to do further tests?
Appointments for supervised feed & desensitisation

If you are told that you must return for a supervised feed, please make sure you know exactly what you need to prepare for your visit during your consultation with Professor Lack. You are expected to bring all the food for your visit; we cannot safely keep foods in the clinic.

 

Professor Lack will guide you through desensitisation protocols but please ensure you are clear on the information provided before you leave the clinic. Our nurses and admin staff will not be able to answer last-minute emails asking for recipes or guidance on the day or the day before the feed.

Insurance Options

All patients must provide us with details of their insurance provider, membership number and pre-authorisation ahead of appointments. At LACK, we have agreements with a variety of insurance companies. We always advise our patients to check with their insurance provider to ensure that they cover our services, as well as finding out what their excess may be.

SEE INSURANCE OPTIONS

Appointments & Testing fees
  • Initial consultation: £360
  • Follow up consultation £280
  • Skin prick testing: £240
  • Exhaled Nitric Oxide £120
  • Spirometry: £140

Payment: We accept most debit and credit cards except for American Express. Payment must be made on the same day as the appointment. We can accept payment by bank transfer and the invoice number must be used as a reference for the payment. Bank details can be emailed to you via our administrative team and they are also listed at the bottom of the invoice. We do not accept cash payments at the moment due to Covid-19.

Immunotherapy:

We offer a range of immunotherapy for pollen allergies, dander allergies as well as respiratory allergens such as dust mite, cladosporium and alternaria. Please ask our admin team for information on pricing. Suitability for immunotherapy treatment will be decided upon after completion of an assessment and diagnostic tests .

We have agreements with a variety of insurance companies. We always advise our patients to check with their insurance provider to ensure that they cover our services and to find out what their excess may be.

We are familiar with the following insurance companies:

All patients must provide us with details of their insurance provider, membership number and pre-authorisation ahead of appointments.

Insurance Options

All patients must provide us with details of their insurance provider, membership number and preauthorisation ahead of appointments. We have agreements with a variety of insurance companies. We always advise our patients to check with their insurance provider to ensure that they cover our services and what their excess may be.