Lumps, moles, cysts, joint injections, travel clinic
Minor surgery, joint injections and travel
Two of our GPs are accredited for minor surgery: removal of cysts, lipomas and skin lesions, joint and soft-tissue steroid injections, and cryotherapy for warts and skin tags, done here on Friday mornings rather than at the hospital. The travel clinic runs with the nurses.
A lot of small operations that used to mean a hospital referral and a six-month wait are done in our treatment room on a Friday morning by Dr Raj Patel and Dr Elin Morgan, both accredited for minor surgery and joint injections. See a GP first, who decides whether it is suitable; the list is usually within four weeks.
Minor surgery covers sebaceous cysts, lipomas, skin tags, warts and verrucas, and skin lesions that need removing and sending for analysis, under local anaesthetic, in a twenty-to-thirty-minute appointment with a nurse assisting. Anything that might be a skin cancer is referred urgently to the hospital instead, within two weeks, because that is where it should be treated. Steroid injections are offered for frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, knee and hip osteoarthritis and carpal tunnel, after the first-contact physiotherapist or a GP has assessed you.
The travel clinic is run by the nurses. Fill in the travel form on this site at least six weeks before you go, and a nurse rings to go through where you are going and what you need: vaccinations, malaria tablets, altitude or diarrhoea advice. Hepatitis A, typhoid, cholera and the polio booster are free; the others are charged at the price we pay, which you are told before anything is booked. Yellow fever is done at the designated centre in Cardiff, and we tell you how.
What is included
- Cysts, lipomas, skin tags, warts and lesions removed under local anaesthetic
- Steroid injections for shoulder, elbow, knee, hip and wrist
- Friday morning list, usually within four weeks
- Anything suspicious referred to hospital within two weeks
- Travel clinic: form six weeks ahead, nurse callback
- Free NHS travel vaccines; others charged at cost
How to book, and when
Free on the NHS after a GP has assessed it. Friday morning list, usually within four weeks. Travel clinic any weekday; some vaccines charged at cost. Everything is free on the NHS unless it says otherwise. How each kind of appointment works is on the appointments page; the full list of clinics is on the clinics page.
Questions about minor surgery and travel
Will it leave a scar?
Any cut leaves a mark. Minor surgery scars are usually a thin line that fades over a year, and the doctor will tell you honestly what to expect for the site before you decide. Cosmetic removal of something harmless is not funded by the NHS, and we will say so.
How long does a steroid injection last?
Weeks to months, and it is not a cure: it buys a window in which the physiotherapy exercises can work. Most people have no more than two or three in the same joint in a year.
I am travelling in a fortnight. Is it too late?
Ring anyway. Some vaccines work within days and some advice matters more than vaccines. The nurse will tell you what is still worth doing.
Need help today? Ring from 8am.
Sixty same-day slots every weekday, a clinician ringing you back the same morning. For anything that can wait, request a routine appointment online and reception replies within a working day. When we are closed, ring 111.