Assessment and prescribed treatment for eczema and dermatitis, in adults and children, with a proper skincare plan.
Assessed and prescribed by a GMC-registered GP
Prescriptions sent electronically to a pharmacy
Monitoring and follow-up included where it is needed
Your NHS records in the room, with your consent
Care led personally by Dr Khan
Attentive, unhurried care that listens properly
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Registered with the Care Quality Commission
Most eczema is undertreated rather than untreatable. People are often given a steroid that is too weak, told to use it too sparingly, and left with skin that never properly settles.
The consultation covers what to use, how much, and for how long — the practical detail that actually determines whether it works.
Treatment combines generous emollient use with topical steroids of appropriate potency, and sometimes non-steroid options such as topical calcineurin inhibitors for the face.
Anxiety about topical steroids causes more harm than the steroids do. Used correctly for defined periods they are safe, and the consultation covers exactly where and for how long.
Most people use a fraction of what is needed. An adult with widespread eczema needs around 500g a week. Applied properly, this alone reduces how much steroid is required.
Undertreatment is far commoner than overtreatment. A weak steroid used timidly for weeks does less good and carries more risk than an adequate one used properly for a defined period.
Then stop, rather than smearing small amounts indefinitely.
Soaps, detergents, heat, stress and sometimes food in young children.
Topical steroids are safe when used correctly for defined periods. Prolonged use of potent steroids on thin skin can cause thinning — which is precisely why the plan specifies where and for how long.
Rapidly spreading, weeping, crusted or painful eczema may be infected and needs urgent assessment. Eczema herpeticum, with clustered painful blisters, is a medical emergency.
Adequately treated eczema improves quickly. If a flare has not settled substantially within two weeks of proper treatment, something is wrong — usually the steroid is too weak, too little is being used, or the skin is infected.
Almost everyone uses too little, and it is the commonest reason treatment fails.
A weak steroid used timidly for weeks does less good and carries more risk than an adequate one used properly for a defined period. Undertreatment is far commoner than overtreatment.
For eczema that keeps returning in the same place, twice-weekly "weekend" steroid to that area prevents flares — a well-established approach that is under-used.
Anxiety about topical steroids causes more harm than the steroids do. Used correctly for defined periods on the right sites, they are safe — and undertreated eczema does real damage to sleep, skin and quality of life.
Severe eczema not controlled by topical treatment has far better options now than it did five years ago, and referral is worth pushing for:
NHS dermatology referral is free. We can refer, and so can your own GP.
Emollients and topical steroids are inexpensive generics. The one that adds up is emollient, because you need much more than most people realise — around 500g a week for widespread adult eczema.
Ask for it in a large tub rather than small tubes. It is markedly cheaper per gram and you are less likely to ration it, which is the point.
We earn nothing from what is prescribed.
Prescriptions are free for children under 16 in England, and free for everyone in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
For a child with ongoing eczema, the NHS route is almost certainly cheaper, and we will say so. What we offer is speed and time to explain the plan properly.
No creams, no supplements, no "eczema kits". We sell nothing.
Be cautious of expensive "natural" eczema creams — several sold in the UK have been found to contain undeclared potent steroids, which is precisely what the buyer was trying to avoid.
Undertreated eczema costs sleep, school and work days, skin infections and courses of antibiotics — and in children it costs a great deal of family sleep. Treating it properly is cheaper than living around it.
Almost certainly not — this is the single commonest reason eczema treatment fails.
An adult with widespread eczema needs around 500g of emollient a week. If a tube is lasting a month, that is a fraction of what is needed.
Used correctly, yes — and fear of them causes more harm than the steroids do.
Thinning comes from prolonged use of potent steroids on thin skin, which is exactly why the plan specifies where, how strong, and for how long. A short burst of an adequate steroid is safer and more effective than weeks of a weak one used timidly.
Enough to treat the flare, applied to all the affected skin, until it has settled — then stop.
One fingertip unit covers about two adult palms' worth of skin. The commonest error is a smear applied to the worst patch only.
Usually because emollients stopped when the skin looked better. Eczema is a barrier problem — the barrier is still impaired even when the skin looks fine.
Emollients continue indefinitely. Steroids are for flares.
Where flares keep returning to the same place, twice-weekly steroid to that area prevents them, and it is under-used.
Eczema herpeticum. Clustered painful blisters, punched-out sores, fever, feeling unwell — this needs same-day assessment, not an appointment next week.
Weeping, golden-crusted or rapidly spreading eczema is likely infected and also needs seeing quickly.
Rarely, and the internet greatly overstates it. Food allergy drives a minority of infant eczema and almost no adult eczema.
Do not restrict a child's diet without allergy assessment. It causes nutritional harm, and paradoxically avoiding a food can cause genuine allergy to develop.
Where a food consistently and immediately worsens things, say so — that warrants proper assessment.
Yes, from three months, with a parent or guardian present and good photographs.
Any unwell or feverish baby under one needs in-person assessment the same day, and infected eczema in a small child needs seeing rather than photographing.
Only mild steroids, and only briefly. Facial skin is thin and thinning happens fastest there.
Topical calcineurin inhibitors — tacrolimus and pimecrolimus — are designed for exactly this, and can be used longer term on the face without thinning.
Many children improve substantially by their teens. Adult eczema tends to persist and to be managed rather than cured.
Neither is a reason to leave it undertreated in the meantime.
Then it needs dermatology, and the options there are far better than they were five years ago. Phototherapy, oral immunosuppressants, and biologics such as dupilumab, which are genuinely transformative for severe eczema and available on the NHS to those who meet the criteria.
NHS referral is free and worth pushing for. Nobody should be told to keep applying the same cream indefinitely.
No. Disturbed sleep is a marker of inadequate control, not something to endure. It is one of the clearest reasons to come back and change the plan.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, GMC 7563469
Last reviewed
August 23, 2026
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Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
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Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
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Usually
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Often 10 to 15 minutes
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Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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