About
Why choose us
Consultant-led assessment and surgical removal of moles and skin lesions.
Our story
How the clinic came about
The Skin Cancer Institute is a specialist clinic for the assessment and surgical removal of moles and skin lesions.
Removing a skin lesion is, in surgical terms, a short procedure. The wait for one is often measured in months.
The clinic was established to shorten that wait. Patients book directly, without a referral, and where it is clinically appropriate, assessment and treatment are carried out at the same visit.
This is of particular consequence in skin cancer. Melanoma is among the small number of cancers in which prognosis is determined largely by the stage at which it is identified. More than nine in ten of those diagnosed survive ten years or longer, and the greater part of that difference is established before treatment begins.
Surgical practice
Surgical and reconstructive expertise
The clinic's surgical practice is led by a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Skin cancer surgery is not solely a matter of clearing a lesion; it is equally a matter of how the site appears and how it functions afterwards.
Excision on the back presents a different problem from excision on an eyelid, a nose or a hand. Where a wound cannot be closed directly it is reconstructed, using a local flap or a graft. This is a distinct surgical discipline, and it is the reason certain lesions are more appropriately treated here than at a clinic established principally to screen.
Standards
Our standards of care
What each patient can expect
- Assessment precedes removal. No lesion is removed until it has been identified. Where there is any uncertainty, it is examined and imaged first.
- Every removal is carried out by a specialist surgeon, under local anaesthetic.
- Every lesion removed is submitted to a laboratory for analysis, irrespective of whether there was any clinical concern.
- Where a patient is content to proceed and there is no reason to delay, consultation and removal are carried out at a single visit.
- Results are available within a week, discussed with the patient by their consultant and accessible through the Patient Portal.
- A dressing clinic appointment one week afterwards, included within the cost of the procedure.
The difference
How we differ
Clinics offering mole removal generally follow one of two models. Some assess and refer, which requires a second appointment elsewhere. Others remove lesions without submitting them for analysis, in which case no diagnosis is ever established.
We provide the whole pathway, and every lesion we remove is analysed. A skin tag removed for reasons of comfort is submitted to the same laboratory as a mole a patient was concerned about. It is the clearest distinction between a skin cancer clinic undertaking cosmetic work and a cosmetic clinic undertaking mole removal.
Our surgeons hold consultant appointments within the NHS alongside their practice here. These are matters of public record.
Our fees are published in full, as figures rather than as a starting price. What a procedure costs, what laboratory analysis costs and what is included may all be established before any appointment is made.
Patient feedback
What patients say
Our reviews are drawn from Google and from correspondence patients send us directly. They are published as written.
Booking
Book an appointment
Appointments may be booked online. If you are uncertain which is appropriate, book a Single Mole Check and the lesion will be examined and advice given.