10 Harley Street Clinic

10 Harley Street Clinic

Diagnostic method  Urine microscopy
Treatment regime  Antibiotics
Clinic location  London

The Harley Street Clinic was established by the late Professor James Malone-Lee. His research work focused on the pharmacology, biomechanics and physiology of urinary incontinence and chronic urinary tract infection. From 2001 to 2003 he was Medical Director for Medicine at the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust and since 1999 was clinical lead at the Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) clinic. He retired from NHS practice in 2018 and founded a private practice in Harley Street, London to treat patients with chronic LUTS. He published nearly 200 peer reviewed research and clinical studies and was a world-leading pioneer in the research of chronic LUTS. Prior to his death in early 2022, Professor Malone-Lee published in 2021 Cystitis Unmasked. Drawing on over 20 years of specific research and clinical experience of Urinary Tract infections the book examines:

• the history of the medicine of urinary tract infection (UTI);
• the urinary microbiome and what the microbes are really up to;
• the battles between the pathogens and the innate immune system;
• the truth about the tests and the criteria used to define UTI;
• antimicrobial resistance and the importance of Darwinian evolution;
• the science and ground-breaking research on UTIs;
• the use of antibiotics; successful treatment;
• supportive and other related treatments;
• ethics; the future; and, above all, the experiences of the patients.

10 Harley Street, London W1G 9PP

Telephone  07568 403 211

Clinic Manager and Medical secretary: Kimberley Bragg, Martel Daley-Peart and Kamarni Peynado-Peart

Email
Administrative enquiries including appointments:
ClinicAdministration@ArtemisCystitis.com

Clinical enquiries and prescription requests:
profjmlclinic@ArtemisCystitis.com

Accounts management:
AccountsManagement@ArtemisCystitis.com

From August 2020 the clinic is no longer accepting private health insurance. All patients must self-fund their treatment.

There are three clinicians working at 10 Harley Street:

• Dr Edward Harvey
• Dr Matthew Malone-Lee
• Dr Sheela Swamy

You will be offered the choice of specialist when you contact the clinic to make your appointment. All the clinicians have trained under Professor Malone-Lee. Only in-person consultations are offered if you are a new patient. Follow up appointments can be offered using Microsoft Teams for a virtual consult or you can be seen in person at the clinic. Note that the charge for follow up appointments remains the same whether you are seen virtually or in-person.

All patients must provide GP details so that the clinic can liaise with them in terms of prescribing and treatment.

For those based in the United States or Australia and not travelling for in-person consultations to the UK, prescriptions can only be issued through a local GP in their home country with whom the clinic will liaise.

Patients who are not UK based must have the co-operation of a clinician in their home country who can oversee their care, provide prescriptions where necessary if medications cannot be posted due to regulatory restrictions by the pharmacy used by the clinic in London, organise regular blood tests and correspond with the clinic.  As much as possible it is preferred that overseas patients are seen face to face at the clinic as well as for urine analysis unless they are able to find a laboratory in their home country that can provide a fresh urine analysis.  If needed, the clinic will share with that laboratory the relevant technique.

In 2018, Professor Malone-Lee and his research team published a 10 year patient research study carried out at the Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) Clinic at the Whittington Hospital where he headed the service until retirement from NHS practice in late 2018.

Before starting the treatment, most of the patients had on average already suffered their symptoms for more than six years, with no treatment having brought relief. The patients were treated with a full dose of first-generation, narrow-spectrum oral antibiotics such as cefalexin, nitrofurantoin or trimethoprim, along with the urinary antiseptic Hiprex.

All patients who had completed their treatment were given back-up antibiotics to use at home at the first indication of their symptoms resurging. This approach was followed to prevent infection becoming chronic because the bladders of patients who have suffered a lot of urinary tract infections are less able to fight off bacteria.

Overall, 64 percent of the 624 women who participated in the study reported that their symptoms were very much better, with another 20 percent reporting that they were much better. 

In many cases, it took more than a year (mean treatment length 383 days) and more than one cycle of treatment for patients’ symptoms to resolve, and before they could stop taking antibiotics completely. Checks for emergent antibiotic resistance were carried out but no increase was observed. Read the research study on Springer.