Gynaecology

This page will be updated January 2018

Consultants:

Mr D Semple; Mr N Haddad; Mr J McCormack; Mr J Hawe; Ms J Davies; Mr Simon Wood, Mr M Ibraheim; Ms S Brigham; Ms L Dinardo; Ms J Van Rij; Ms T Finney; Ms U Rao

Obstetrics

The overall philosophy of this service is to provide each woman with the appropriate care, at the appropriate time, for the well being of both the mother and baby. In order to fulfil this philosophy, integrated care with patient/client choice, pre-natal screening and community-based care is offered. In addition to the routine antenatal clinics held in the Obstetric Unit, one specialist medical disorder clinic, a high risk pregnancy clinic for pre-conceptual and anomaly scans and invasive procedures are held weekly. There is a weekly Consultant antenatal clinic held at Halton Hospital. All obstetric ultrasound is carried out by qualified ultrasonographers in the Maternity Ultrasound Department.

A Day Assessment Unit staffed by midwives has been instrumental in reducing the number of antenatal admissions and this has led to a reduction in the number of antenatal/postnatal beds now required in the unit. A Transitional Care Unit allows babies to receive special care on the postnatal ward, either with or without a preceding stay in the Neonatal Unit, and this reduces the separation of mother and baby. The Central Labour Suite has a complement of 16 beds which includes a purpose built Waterbirth suite and Family Bereavement Room. There were 3,200 births in 2009.

The Anaesthetic Department provides a 24-hour emergency cover for labour ward, 24-hour cover epidural service and five consultant anaesthetic sessions on labour ward.

Gynaecology

The Gynaecological Services provides complete inpatient including emergency admissions, day case and outpatient facilities. The philosophy of care for gynaecology is investigation of patients as an outpatient and of minimal surgical intervention. The advancement in endoscopic surgery and laparoscopic procedures has increased both day case surgery and procedures performed within the outpatient clinic. This has resulted in a reduction in the length of stay of patients. Specialist outpatient gynaecology services include Colposcopy, Fertility, Urogynaecology, Oncology, services to provide Termination of Pregnancy and Sterilisation and an Early Pregnancy Assessment Service. These specialist clinics, in addition to Minor Procedure clinics, allow complete investigation of the patient at initial referral visit. Rapid access clinics for early detection and diagnosis of gynaecological cancer have been introduced. Satellite outpatient gynaecology services are provided at Ellesmere Port Hospital.