Lymphoedema

Making a referral

We accept referrals from:

• GPs
• hospital doctors
• other healthcare professionals

Referral criteria

We accept referrals for people with symptoms of lymphoedema caused by cancer or cancer treatment if they:

• had all or part of their cancer treatment at Guy's and St Thomas', or
• live in Lambeth or Southwark and are registered with a GP in these boroughs

We accept referrals from King's College Hospital for NHS patients who need assessment for swelling secondary to breast cancer treatment.

If your patient doesn't meet our criteria or has non-cancer related lymphoedema, please use the British Lymphology website directory to find lymphoedema services they can access.

How to refer

We encourage you to submit referrals by email. Paper referrals will still be accepted where necessary, but we will encourage referrers to use digital referral methods in future.

Please include 'new referral' in the subject line.

Include all relevant clinical details, such as:

• medical history
• medical letters
• recent blood tests and investigations

Using a non NHS.net email account is not a secure method for sending patient identifiable data.

Please contact us by phone or email if you want to discuss a referral with us.

Urgent referrals

Please include the reasons your referral is urgent and contact us to confirm it has been received.

We aim to review patients having palliative management for their cancer and who develop lymphoedema within 2 weeks of referral.

Emergency referrals

We do not accept emergency referrals. Any patient with symptoms such as acute pain or cellulitis should be assessed by their GP as soon as possible.