Symptoms — where to start
Start with what you are feeling. Each page explains what the symptom usually means, when it needs urgent attention, and what we do to find the cause.
Most people arrive at a chest clinic with a symptom, not a diagnosis. You know that the cough has not gone, that the stairs are harder than they were, or that your child wakes coughing most nights — not whether that is asthma, an infection or something else. Working that out is our job, not yours.
Each page below takes one complaint and answers the three questions that actually matter: what usually causes it, when it needs attention today rather than next week, and what a consultation will involve. Every page opens with the warning signs that mean going straight to a hospital, because nobody should have to read eight hundred words to find out whether they are in trouble.
From there, each one leads to the condition it most often turns out to be — asthma, COPD, tuberculosis, sleep apnea or interstitial lung disease — and to the test that settles it. If none of them quite describes your problem, book a consultation and bring your reports: a symptom that does not fit a page is exactly the kind worth looking at properly.
You do not need to know the diagnosis — that is our job
Bring your previous prescriptions, any chest X-ray or CT report, and a list of your medicines. Very often the answer is one correct test and the right inhaler technique.