Medical

Letter of July 25 from Dr P, Osteoporosis Clinic at Dulwich Hospital, to my GP:


I reviewed this gentleman in my clinic today as a follow up to his review last year. He attends the Osteoporosis Clinic on an annual basis for treatment with intravenous zolendronic acid. Lord Avebury attended today and appeared to be well. I understand that he is currently under investigation by the haematologists, possibly for myeloproliferative disorder or lymphomatous infiltration of his bone marrow. He otherwise tells me that he has remained very well and has sustained no further falls or fractures. He remains independently mobile and self-caring.

As per our protocol, we note that Lord Avebury has had some bloods taken recently which show his calcium was normal at 2.15, and that his renal function showed that his eGFR was over 35mls/min. I need to check a vitamin D level for him today and if this is within the normal range then it will be possible for us to arrange for him to have a zolendronic acid infusion in the next month or so. I will arrange to review him again in one year's time, but he is aware that if there are any problems in the interim he is more than welcome to contact our appointments team to bring forward that appointment.

I understand from Lord Avebury that it would be possible for your surgery to undertake the bloods before his appointment with me. This would make things a bit easier for him because if we had some bloods that had been taken within the last month we could combine reviewing him and administering his infusion into one visit. His next appointment with me is on the 30th of July 2012, and we would require calcium, eGFR and a vitamin D level in order to do this. I will place a note in my diary so that we can contact you closer to the time perhaps to prompt the planning of these tests so that we can get this to run smoothly. Many thanks.