Before, during and after your appointment

Before your appointment

Book online or by phone. No referral from your GP or your current consultant is needed. Once booked, start gathering what you have: any scans (on disc or via a secure link), operation notes, clinic letters and discharge summaries. Our preparing for your appointment page has a full checklist and explains how to request records you do not already hold.

You do not need everything before you book. If you are missing something, come anyway; Professor Lee can still give you a useful opinion based on what you bring and his examination, and tell you what else would help.

On the day

The appointment is 45 minutes, face to face, at The Keep Clinic in Grantham or MSK House in Sleaford. It has three parts:

• Your history. Professor Lee asks about your symptoms, how they started, what has been tried so far, and what you have been told.
• Your imaging and reports. Any scans and letters you bring are reviewed alongside your history.
• Examination. A clinical examination of the relevant joint, comparing what is found with the history and the imaging.

Professor Lee then talks you through what he sees, in plain terms, and answers your questions. This is your appointment: ask what you actually want to know, including things you may have felt awkward asking your own team.

After your appointment

You receive a written summary of the opinion. With your consent, a copy can also go to your GP. What you do with it is your decision; see after your second opinion for how that works.

What this appointment is not

• It is not a video or phone consultation: face to face only.
• It is not an emergency service. For urgent symptoms, contact NHS 111, your GP or 999.