The St. James’s Hospital Immunology Department is one of Ireland’s leading Clinical Immunology and Allergy centres. We also offer an INAB accredited Immunology Laboratory service.
We operate an outpatient clinical service twice a week and a five-day ambulatory care service in our Immunology Day Ward.
The clinical team see and treat patients with a wide range of conditions including immunodeficiency, vasculitis, allergies and other autoimmune disorders. Our service is an accredited Jeffrey Modell Foundation Expert Centre for the investigation and treatment of primary immunodeficiency (info4pi.org).
In 2022 the Immunology Department at St. James’s Hospital achieved accreditation as the first UCARE centre in Ireland. UCARE accreditation underscores the department’s commitment to providing excellence in care of urticaria in line with international standards of best practice.
We offer a dedicated immunology service comprising of outpatient assessment, day ward evaluation and treatment and consultation for inpatients.
We provide specialist services in the following areas:
We also provide an in-patient consult service and, as a pathology specialty, have roles in the INAB accredited Diagnostic Immunology Laboratory Service including; result validation, communication and quality control.
Primary immunodeficiency and vasculitis are the priority clinical areas of this department. Recent years have seen huge increases in referrals for allergic disease. We continue to advocate for resources to meet this area of overwhelming demand.
The Immunology Department is actively involved in research and education and regularly collaborates in research published in international peer-reviewed journals. We have a programme of weekly seminars which deal with clinical case studies, translational research and laboratory techniques.
Appointments for the Immunology Clinical Service are made on receipt of a referral letter from the patient’s GP or other referring doctor. Referral letters are evaluated by the consultant and appointments are offered to patients, if clinically appropriate. All referral letters should be sent to:
The wait for a routine clinical immunology appointment may be up to 24 months. Urgent referrals are seen sooner. There is no private immunology clinic available in St James’s Hospital.
If you receive an appointment but feel you should be seen sooner, you should discuss this with your referring doctor who may then contact the Immunology medical team to provide further details.
The single most important factor in our long waiting list is the lack of specialist clinical immunology doctors and nurses available to provide the increasing breadth of service required for an increasing number of patients. Increased recognition and referral of allergic disease is also a major factor in our long waiting times. We believe that this is a major unmet need across the health service.
We are continuing to engage with St James’s Hospital management, Dublin Midlands Hospital Group and the HSE to secure the resources required to improve all aspects of our service including waiting times.
Immunology departments also exist in Beaumont and Galway Hospitals. Please note clinical immunology services are not available in St Vincent’s Hospital, Mater Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Limerick University Hospital or other regional hospitals.
Contact allergy – please refer patients to our Dermatology Service. Our Immunology Service does not have access to patch testing.
Eczema – in general, patients with eczema should be seen by a dermatologist, unless there is specific evidence of associated serious food allergy. Please note that whilst food allergy is associated with eczema, eczema in adults is not caused by food allergy.
Food intolerance / irritable bowel syndrome – there are no evidence-based diagnostic laboratory tests for food intolerance. Patients with non-allergic gut symptoms (bloating, excessive flatulence, diarrhoea) may benefit from assessment for coeliac disease, or in certain cases testing for lactose intolerance (provided by the Gastroenterology Service). Assessment by a specialist gut doctor (gastroenterologist) may be helpful rule to out other stomach conditions. Food intolerance is best managed by dietary manipulation under the supervision of an experienced dietician. We do not recommend the use of non-evidence based tests or management strategies such as food specific IgG, Vega testing, kinesiology, enzyme potentiated desensitisation or naturopathy. The use of such tests in allergic disorders may be dangerous.
Non-allergic rhinosinusitis – whilst we do offer desensitisation for patients with allergic nasal disease, if there is no evidence of allergic sensitisation on testing then there is no role for immunology services. Most cases of allergic rhinitis should be managed in primary care.
Lyme disease / chronic lyme disease – referrals should be directed to an appropriate infectious disease specialist.
Chronic fatigue syndrome / ME and related disorders – the Immunology Department is currently unable to offer services to manage chronic fatigue syndrome. We do not offer experimental immune system treatments. We advise, in line with NICE (UK) guidelines, that patients with CFS/ME, should engage in a supervised graded exercise programme with supporting cognitive behavioural therapy. Unfortunately, this approach is not available in the Immunology Department or locally in St James’s Hospital at this time.
Immunology
Ten ways to help your immune system
Patient Information Leaflet - Hereditary Angioedema
Immunodeficiency diseases support groups
Chronic Granulomatous Disease Society
Gene People – The genetic conditions support group
IPOPI – International patient organisation for primary immunodeficiency
Allergy
Frequently asked questions about allergy
Penicillin Allergy Patient Information
Information for patients with confirmed penicillin allergy
Vasculitis
We understand that many people are waiting for long periods on their immunology appointment and that this is frustrating.
Between 10 and 25% of patients (2015-2017) did not attend their scheduled appointment and these appointment slots are wasted. This is unfortunate for people waiting on a much needed appointment.
In most cases, patients that do not attend their appointment will not be offered a further appointment with us. The referring doctor or GP will be informed.
We do recognise that circumstances change – if you no longer want or need an appointment, please cancel it by contacting the immunology secretary on (01) 416 2928.
The department provides a number of advice services to GPs. These include management of chronic spontaneous urticaria in general practice.
Information regarding the immunology laboratory service, including test repertoire, turnaround times and results, can be found here.
Additional test requests
Turnaround times
Critical Results Policy
Contact Details
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
A hospital wide patient representative meeting takes place once a month.
Clinical advice
Allergy Advice:
Professor J David M Edgar, Consultant Immunologist
Professor Niall P Conlon, Consultant Immunologist
Dr Salma Alamin, Locum Consultant Immunologist
Thursday afternoon clinics are dedicated to Urticaria patients.
• Monday 9:00 – 13:00
• Thursday 13:30 – 17:00
Immunology Clinic: ground floor, main hospital building
Immunology Day Ward: Hospital 5