Trust bid to improve inpatient urology services

Patients are to benefit from the reshaping of urology inpatient services and the investment of two new bladder scanners as part of a programme to improve patient care.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust will open a new male ward and centralise planned urology inpatient services at North Manchester General Hospital to improve patient access to onsite medical cover and the urology nurse specialist team.

All inpatient urology services at The Royal Oldham Hospital (Ward F6) will transfer to North Manchester General Hospital on Saturday 26 November 2011. From this date, those patients who require an inpatient hospital stay will be treated at North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH) in a specialist facility comprising three inpatient wards – two male wards and one female ward.

Most of the staff from Ward F6 at The Royal Oldham Hospital will transfer and open a new 18 –bed male ward on C6 at North Manchester General which will treat elective patients (patients planned to come in for surgery). Ward C5, an 18 bed male ward, will become a non- elective ward (patients without planned admission e.g. from A&E, GP’s and outpatient clinics).

The female ward on C3 at North Manchester will treat both elective and non-elective patients with 13 beds for Urology and 5 beds for Breast care.

Urology is one of the most varied branches of surgery. Urology Services provided at the Trust have seven consultants and teams of nurses who specialise in a range of conditions including disease of the bladder, kidney or prostate, kidney stones, continence, erectile dysfunction, impotence, infertility, incontinence, and cancer.

As part of the service moves, The Royal Oldham Hospital has invested in two new bladder scanners which will provide a higher level intervention for patients without the need for immediate urology review at another hospital. The scanners will be based in the Accident & Emergency department and the day case unit on ward E3.

Annette German, Urology Lead Nurse at The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “By concentrating the expertise of the medical staff on one hospital site it will provide a better service with a more consolidated approach to the care of patients especially with the production of specific pathways for their care.

“The Urology nurse specialist team will also be able to provide a greater input on the wards especially for the newly diagnosed cancer patients who are under going surgery.

“The new portable bladder scanners will enable healthcare staff to determine whether a patient is emptying their bladder or not, in a quick and non invasive way. It will prevent unnecessary catheterisation of the patient and will ensure that their care is delivered as near to their home as possible, without being transferred to another hospital for this day case procedure.

“The scanner in A&E will enable the medical staff to make a quick diagnosis of patients who attend with difficulty passing urine, and will be able to more accurately assess if a catheter is required or not depending on the volume of urine in the bladder.

“This will enable patients to be able to be sent home post catheterisation for close follow up and/or investigation by the urology specialist team if the urine volume is low. This will avoid all patients being catheterised and then transferred for admission to North Manchester General Hospital. They will now be dealt with safely within the A&E department.”

There will be no changes to the location of outpatient clinics, diagnostics and day case services. Outpatient clinics and diagnostic tests will still be available and provided at Rochdale Infirmary, Fairfield General Hospital and The Royal Oldham Hospital.

John Lindars, divisional director for surgery at the Trust, added: “The changes are clinically led as part of the Healthy Futures reconfiguration programme for the North East sector of Greater Manchester. The new arrangements will ensure that the Trust will be able to continue to provide safe and sustainable specialist, high quality patient focused urology services for the future.”

Patients who are listed for an inpatient procedure have been written to by the Trust informing them of the change of hospital site.