Gynaecology
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 S Kirkwood
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.