Integrative Cancer Care (Integrative Oncology)

Prior to your first consultation, you will be sent a confirmation email with the details of the appointment, any paperwork that needs to be completed and, in most cases, a link to complete your health and lifestyle history forms. Please note that this is an extensive form and you will need to allow around 30 minutes to complete it. Please have any supplements or medications you take to hand when you fill in the form.

You will need to complete and return the forms and any other associated paperwork, such as the 3-day nutrition and lifestyle diary, at least 2 working days prior to the appointment. It is crucial for our professionals to have the right information prior to seeing you in person, so that we can use our time together in the most effective way possible.

Please note that all appointments are invoiced for in advance and are payable before the consultations. There is a 48-hour cancellation policy for all appointments.

During the initial 75-90 min consultation, one of our practitioners will review your health goals, take a full history of your symptoms, family history, current and past medical problems and treatment and any recent test results. We would also have a detailed discussion of lifestyle including nutrition, sleep, physical activity, stress management and environmental factors. We would also discuss what may be underlying the issues you are experiencing and recommend any further testing needed and any associated costs.

Following the initial appointment, you will receive a full management plan, including any recommendations on further testing, lifestyle measures (including supplementation where necessary) and other advice as needed within 5-10 working days (usually within a week). If you are on a package, you will be provided with contact details for your clinic coordinator who will help you make further appointments, order tests and answer queries about how the clinic works.

Please note that we are happy to answer 1-2 emails after the consultation to clarify any points in the plan but beyond that, all non-urgent queries will be answered at your next consultation. Any email advice from our professionals beyond the 1-2 email limit would be chargeable due the time involved in answering further queries and would be subject to the professional’s availability.

Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine is not a quick fix, and commitment to a 3-6 month programme is required (although complex cases may need a longer period of support from the clinic).

Please contact your clinic coordinator to book in your blood tests and to arrange test kits. Some tests will need to be ordered directly by you and you will be advised if that is the case.

An overview of our diagnostic test offering is available here.

If you booked a package with one of our doctors, a 3-month package with our nutrition team or a health coaching package, you will be contacted by the clinic coordinator to help schedule your follow-up appointments. Three contact attempts will be made but following that, it will be up to the individual to contact the clinic to request a follow-up appointment within the package timeframe. It is important to note that all nutrition packages are designed to be completed within 3 months and a maximum of 6 months, and no further package appointments can be made beyond this time. Unfortunately we cannot hold time in practitioner diaries indefinitely for package appointments, and any remaining sessions that are not taken up within 6 months (or as per package Ts&Cs) would be null and void.

That depends on the professional you are seeing but follow-ups with our doctors are usually every 6-8 weeks. Health coaches and yoga therapists usually start with weekly appointments, and nutritional professionals usually see their clients every 2-4 weeks, depending on the stage of the process. Psychiatry support, including psychotherapeutic input, starts off weekly or fortnightly, although this can be tailored to your own individual circumstances.

We do require a significant amount of paperwork to help us with pre-consultation assessment, monitoring of outcomes and clinical audit, so we suggest setting aside at least 30-45 minutes to complete the paperwork and having your medical letters and any recent test results to upload. It is also not possible to be precise about lifestyle recommendations without having a regular nutrition and lifestyle diary completed, so we usually ask for it at every medical and nutrition consultation unless it is a very brief review. This is according to clinic procedures to help us provide effective personalised support. Please learn more about about how we work by reading our clinic overview and FAQ here.

In our integrative cancer care division, it is essential that we know about everyone involved in your care (NHS, charity, private practitioners) to help support you in the most effective way possible. Where there are clashes between our integrative and collaborative approach vs alternative or possibly unsafe methods available on the Internet, we may need to ask you to consider which approach you would like to go forward with. Unfortunately there are certain practices out there that we would not support or recommend. You are advised to check with the clinic coordinator in the first instance and discuss further during the discovery call (where available) to ensure you are happy with the approach and everyone on the team is aligned. If anything is unresolved or requires further attention, please contact the Practice Manager, Emma Eastman, on emmaeastman@synthesisclinic.co.uk.

Additionally, please note that we are a UK-based adult only clinic, and we will only offer appointments to those over 18. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer an opportunity for other people to pay for the patient’s treatment without their knowledge of the costs as per clinic policy. While we appreciate the wonderful offer of support, payments are processed via the person’s portal, and we strongly believe that clients and patients should have full knowledge about and engagement with their care.