Out-patients

Registered nurses administer injections where a patient has medication which has been dispensed by our own pharmacists.

On request from any GP or Consultant practicing in the UK, our highly experienced phlebotomists and nurses draw blood samples in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, making the procedure as stress free as possible. 

As our Pathology laboratory is on site results can be turned around quickly. Results will normally be sent directly to the referring Doctor.

This service combines the benefits of our leg ulcer care and lymphoedema services.

We provide information personal to each patient on preventing diabetic foot problems, including selecting pressure-relieving insoles and specialist shoes to help prevent development of foot problems. The team also helps patients in managing complex, non-healing diabetic foot wounds.

The tissue viability team offers a home care service for patients with non-healing wounds if they are unable to come to the hospital due to illness, disease or the actual position of the wound.  We offer therapy for patients who have been discharged from the hospital to return home. These include:

• larvae therapy
• platelet gel using patients own tissue to stimulate the healing of wounds
• total negative pressure vacuum-assisted closure therapy.

To help patients and carers manage their care at home we can provide information and advice on types of beds and cushions which can help as well as the arrangement of equipment which can be used to prevent pressure ulcers.

We provide a comprehensive service from assessment through to compression bandaging. We also develop personal exercise programmes for each patient and a skin care plan with regular follow-up to prevent ulcers recurring. 

Our purpose-built minor procedure suite means patients can often be treated on the same day as their initial consultation. Procedures we undertake include:

• biopsies for analysis and diagnosis purposes
• colposcopy and treatment
• diagnostic hysteroscopy
• gynaecology (minimally-invasive)
• intravitreal injections under local anaesthetic for conditions such as macular degeneration
• lesion removal
• scar revision.

Our fully-equipped plaster room is run by experienced nurses and orthopaediac physiotherapists. Orthopaedic consultants are able to treat certain types of acute fractures that require a cast or splint, together with other orthopaedic conditions. Experienced nursing staff are also on hand to support patients being treated by consultants, and our orthopaedic physiotherapists are available for advice and treatment on request.

Nurses and phlebotomists can accept samples for analysis on request from a referring GP or one of our consultants.

Our experienced nurses are able to remove sutures or stitches and staples or clips following surgery, for out-patients referred to us by a GP. We can provide on-going general wound care and also make referrals to the tissue viability clinical nurse specialist if necessary.

Nurses and phlebotomists are not able to provide copies of results without a request from a patient’s doctor, as the results need to be clinically interpreted in terms of overall patient care.  Usually your own doctor will contact you directly, or ask you to attend a follow-up appointment with them to explain your test results and undergo any further tests or treatment that may be needed.

This service is run by our tissue viability nurse specialist. We use the most advanced technology and acute and chronic wound management techniques to aid non-healing wounds. This includes the prevention and management of pressure ulcers; treatment of diabetic foot; trauma wounds; fungating and non-healing wounds.

We also help in the prevention and management of skin damage due to fragile skin, post-surgical wounds, infected wounds and minor burns.

This test is designed to detect areas of loss of vision or reduced sensitivity to light. Defects in the visual field may go unnoticed for a long period, for example, in conditions of chronic glaucoma and pituitary tumours. Many optometrists now routinely check a patient’s visual fields with a screening programme as part of eye examinations.

We use the sophisticated ‘Humphrey Analyser’ software programme which is specifically designed to assess and monitor various eye and neurological conditions. For example, it is the mainstay for assessing conditions such as chronic open-angle glaucoma. This is where a patient’s central vision may be good, but other areas of their visual field may be restricted.

The Humphrey visual field test is designed to identify early changes to the visual function of the eye for both monitoring of conditions and in diagnosis, for example, of cerebral tumours or vascular events.

The test works by displaying flashes of light with a fixed background light level. This helps us to find the dimmest light that the patient’s eye is able to detect at various locations in the visual field.

Each eye is generally assessed separately with the other eye patched over. The entire test lasts up to 25 minutes.

We use the Estermann Test to assess the visual field of both eyes which the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) requires patients who are known to have areas of visual field loss to undertake as part of their application to hold, or continue to hold, a UK driving licence.