Joint Antenatal Clinic

These are held at East Surrey Hospital on Tuesday afternoons and at Crawley Hospital on Monday afternoons. The endocrinologists join the obstetrics team to care for pregnant women with endocrinology disorders.

Joint Surgical Clinics

These are held once a month with an endocrinology consultant and Mr Adam Stacey-Clear to assess patients who will have planned thyroid or parathyroid surgery. Blood tests for thyroid function should be requested prior to referral. Patients with hyper- or hypothyroidism and a nodular goitre without suspicious features should be referred routinely to a general endocrinology clinic.

It is not necessary to request an ultrasound scan or thyroid isotope scan in advance of the clinic appointment – this additional step may result in unnecessary delay in making the diagnosis of cancer and is not recommended.

The endocrinology team form part of a thyroid cancer multi-centre network. When a thyroid nodule is found to be suspicious for cancer, or where there is uncertainty about the diagnosis, cases can be discussed at a fortnightly multi-disciplinary meeting via tele-link with the thyroid cancer specialists at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.

When surgical removal of a thyroid nodule is necessary, this surgery can be performed by the Trust’s consultant surgeon, Mr Adam Stacey-Clear, at East Surrey Hospital. Patients with confirmed thyroid cancer will continue to be followed-up by the thyroid MDT.

Thyroid Nodule Clinic

Tuesdays, 9.30am-12pm at East Surrey Hospital.

This is a one-stop clinic for assessment of thyroid nodules or lumps. Patients can be referred to this service by their GP. Following assessment, the patient will have an ultrasound scan, and, if required, an ultrasound-guided, fine needle aspiration of the nodule, and the results are normally available the same day.

Patients requiring urgent assessment for possible thyroid cancer should be referred under the 2-week rule. Criteria for urgent referral include:

  • Unexplained hoarseness or voice changes associated with a goitre
  • Thyroid nodule in a child
  • Cervical lymphadenopathy associated with a thyroid lump
  • A rapidly enlarging painless thyroid mass over a period of weeks

Other patients, including those with a history of sudden onset of pain in a thyroid lump, and those with a thyroid lump which is newly presenting or increasing in size over months, can be referred non-urgently.