What Happens During a Typical Appointment?

  • Please find below a detailed outline of our clinic routine for allergy appointments.

  • Appointments usually last approximately 60 minutes. The clinic routine involves the following steps:

  • 1. Completion of booking documentation and registration

  • 2. Measurement of height and weight (unless recently reliably performed)

  • 3. After initially being led by a nurse, a specialist allergy nurse will perform a skin prick test, followed by a lung function test (if required).

  • 4. Consultation with Dr Du Toit will include:

  • - Additional history

  • - Physical examination

  • - Interpretation of skin prick test results

  • - Discussion of diagnosis and potential differential diagnoses

  • - Advice on dietary and environmental modifications (if required)

  • - Prescription of medications and emergency plan

  • - Training on how to identify and treat allergic reactions

  • - Provision of additional educational material

  • 5. If required, we may refer you to a specialist pediatric allergy dietitian.

  • 6. Blood testing may be necessary (we will offer local anaesthetic cream beforehand). Please note that the lab (either TDL or HCA) will charge separately for this service. Please ensure that you are covered before undergoing any testing.

  • 7. A detailed summary will be generated and sent to both the referring doctor and you within 14 days. If you prefer the consultation summary not to be sent via email, please inform the practice.

  • We hope this information helps you understand what to expect during an allergy appointment at our clinic.Follow up with results will typically be on a Zoom call within 2-4 weeks after the appointment.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Allergy Appointment

  • Please ensure that you have confirmed your appointment time and the location of the clinic you are attending. It is recommended that you arrive a little early to complete documentation. You will need to register on-site and provide your insurance and GP details. We also have GDPR requirements that need to be met, so an early arrival for your appointment is wise.

    1. Please stop taking anti-histamine medications at least 2 days before your appointment. Other medicines such as asthma medicines and antibiotics will not interfere with Allergy testing. If antihistamines cannot be stopped, Dr. Du Toit will still be able to perform IgE Allergy testing.

    2. Take some time to think carefully about events surrounding your/your child's medical concern/s. Make a list of questions you would like answered and bring along any digital images, respiratory sound clips, video clips, referral letters, and hospital discharge notes of past allergy 'episodes'. Also, bring content lists of processed foods that may have caused a reaction.

    3. If you suspect that a food may be associated with your/your child's symptoms, please ensure that we offer the test for this particular food. We offer various test extracts for skin testing and will facilitate testing if you bring a small specimen of the food to the clinic (no more than 3 specimens), in case we don't offer the test for the particular food you are concerned about.

    4. You may also wish to bring along any expired Epipen, JEXT or Emerade devices, so that we can train you to use them. To help reduce any anxiety, please feel free to bring along your/your child's favourite distractions or comforters, for example, a teddy bear, comfort blanket, toy, or Ipad.VD or other electronic gizmo's.

Referrals

GP referrals account for the majority of patients seen by Dr Du Toit. Referrals to the practice also typically come from other specialists in the disciplines of Dermatology, Ear Nose and Throat Medicine, Dietetics, Gastroenterology, Anaesthetists and Respiratory medicine physicians. Self-paying self-referrals are occasionally seen.

Most UK-based medical insurers will require that your GP provide a referral letter. We will always try our best to accommodate urgent referrals.    

Accredited Embassies - We will only see patients sponsored by an accredited embassy, for example, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, USA if a valid letter of guarantee addressed to Dr G Du Toit is provided. The letter should state the patient's name, treatments covered and the appointment date.

Remote Consultations

Dr du Toit is able to undertake remote consultations via Zoom.

After an initial consultation, if allergy testing is required, this will need to be undertaken locally at a 'willing' Lab that undertakes IgE testing using the Immuno-Cap system, ISAC test or ALEX IgE test.  

Dr Du Toit will then feed back to you with the results in a follow up Zoom and will issue a summary.