Finding a dermatologist in uk

[red11]

Hi I am looking for a dermatologist near Preston or Lancaster in the uk how do I go about it are they available on the nhs or do you have to go private and can they perscibe medicines such as clonodine I have read on here that it seems to be about the best treatment for severe facial flushing.

[Melissa W]

Hi Red,
Are you near Hammersmith hospital in London? Dr Tony Chu is well versed in rosacea and could prescribe Clonidine for you if he thinks it would be helpful. Sorry as I do not know where Preston or Lancaster is but I do recommend Dr Chu.

Best,
Melissa

[y-gwair]

Your GP should be able to prescribe clonidine, you do not need to travel all the way to London just for that. I wouldn't bother seeing Chu either, his approach is basically to just work his way through a shopping list of increasingly strong medications (clonidine, mirtazipine, betablockers, mepacrine, anti-androgens etc) in the hope that they suppress flushing without taking on board any co-existing health problems that might be exacerbated by these medications. If they fail to work (as in my case) he is as clueless as anyone else. The strong anti-androgens were a really bad idea for anyone with a connective tissue disease, I was disturbed he prescribed them for me without taking into consideration my collagen-vascular issues.

If you want to try 'vascular' medications, far better to do them under the supervision of your GP, who will hopefully do things such as monitor your blood pressure to make sure they are not making you hypotensive, which is a real risk if you are combining a range of blood-pressure lowering medications in the manner Chu does. Personally the only ones I found helpful were clonidine and propranolol, both of which my own GP was happy to prescribe in the first instance.

[Judworth]

Your GP should be able to prescribe clonidine, you do not need to travel all the way to London just for that. I wouldn't bother seeing Chu either, his approach is basically to just work his way through a shopping list of increasingly strong medications (clonidine, mirtazipine, betablockers, mepacrine, anti-androgens etc) in the hope that they suppress flushing without taking on board any co-existing health problems that might be exacerbated by these medications. If they fail to work (as in my case) he is as clueless as anyone else. The strong anti-androgens were a really bad idea for anyone with a connective tissue disease, I was disturbed he prescribed them for me without taking into consideration my collagen-vascular issues.

If you want to try 'vascular' medications, far better to do them under the supervision of your GP, who will hopefully do things such as monitor your blood pressure to make sure they are not making you hypotensive, which is a real risk if you are combining a range of blood-pressure lowering medications in the manner Chu does. Personally the only ones I found helpful were clonidine and propranolol, both of which my own GP was happy to prescribe in the first instance.

What an extremely helpful post.

J