The Bristol Urological Institute (BUI) was established in 1993 as a charity to promote research into urological diseases and to provide high quality undergraduate and post graduate teaching.

In 2010 the Bristol Urological Institute was incorporated into North Bristol NHS Trust, Southmead Hospital, Bristol.

The Bristol Urological Institute (BUI) now offers a complete clinical service to patients with urological problems and provides teaching and research.

The BUI intends to remain a patient focused organisation providing the best care to patients with urological conditions, and by working with them, to teach healthcare professionals about urology and to build on its research successes over the last 25 years.

Bristol Urological Institute – promoting urology through research, teaching and premier patient care.

Clinical trials are research studies that look at new ways of delivering medical care and test new drugs or combinations of drugs in patients.

Clinical trials in cancer care is extremely important as a means of exploring and deciding on the most effective and efficient means of treating and diagnosing cancer.

The clinical trials team at North Bristol NHS Trust co-ordinates and support the delivery of clinical trials across a variety of cancers including:

• Haematology
• Urology
• Brain
• Head and Neck
• Upper Gastro Intestinal
• Colorectal
• Breast
• Lung
• Skin

If you are eligible for a study that we are running at North Bristol NHS Trust, a member of the clinical trials team will discuss the study with you in detail.

Participation in clinical trials is voluntary and if you decide not to participate, this will not influence your treatment in any way.

The Acute Oncology Service is in place to ensure that cancer patients at North Bristol NHS Trust have a smoother and more efficient care pathway when they are admitted for an acute complication of their cancer, their treatment or are newly diagnosed during an acute episode of illness. 

We help patients with cancer who are acutely unwell due to:

• Complications of their treatment e.g. Chemotherapy or Radiotherapy.
• Complications of their cancer.
• A new diagnosis of cancer where the primary is unknown.

The Acute Oncology Team can:

• Provide advice over the phone if you are experiencing complications due to your cancer or treatment.
• Offer support and advice for you and your family to help you make decisions about your treatment during the acute episode of illness.
• Give advice to other healthcare professionals looking after you.
• Help facilitate an early discharge from hospital wherever possible.
• Work with colleagues in the community to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
• Act as a point of contact for the patient and other healthcare professionals during an acute episode of illness.

The Acute Oncology Team consists of Acute Oncology and Haematology nurse specialists and visiting Consultant Clinical Oncologists.

The Bristol Urological Institute (BUI) patient services replaces the two urological departments of Southmead Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary which combined into a single department in March 2013. 

The BUI patient services consist of inpatients at Southmead Hospital and Weston General Hospital and outpatient services at Southmead Hospital, the Bristol Royal Infirmary, South Bristol Hospital, Weston General and other community bases in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

There are 14 Consultant Urologists based at the Bristol Urological Institute (BUI) with other consultants who come from Weston-super-Mare and Swindon Hospitals to provide specialist patient services at the BUI.

Patient Services are organised into the specialist areas of urology:

• Andrology (erectile dysfunction)
• Cancer services (kidney, prostate, bladder, testicular, penile)
• Stones
• Incontinence
• Specialist investigations (urodynamics)

We only accept referrals from your GP or a hospital consultant. If you have a urological problem, please visit your GP first. Your GP can decide whether referral is necessary or appropriate.

Once you have been referred, you will be able to schedule an outpatient appointment. We may arrange for you to undergo some tests in advance of your appointment to speed the diagnostic process.

If you have concerns about appointments, investigations, admissions or results, contact your Consultant's secretary or if you prefer, you can talk with one of the Specialist Nurses.

The Bristol Urological Institute (BUI) is a long established research unit.

The Bristol Urological Institute (BUI):

• attracts major national and international grants
• publishes extensively in all areas of urology
• participates in international clinical trials
• promotes charitable donations
• provides premier patient services

The Bristol urologists have always been at the cutting edge, introducing robotic surgery, pioneering urodynamics, promoting minimally invasive kidney stone surgery and investing in community delivered diagnostics.

Teaching has been a major component of our work with our certificated courses setting an international standard and generations of young urologists leaving us with new skills. 

When you are told you have a long term condition such as kidney disease and need dialysis, you can feel that you have lost control, particularly as treatment requires so many changes to your life.

Whilst we are used to having our healthcare provided, we often have a more positive outlook, feel better and more in control when we are involved in our own care. Evidence gathered from dialysis patients who have participated in their own care, show that they:

• Understand their treatment and condition
• Gain confidence
• Feel better in themselves

What does Shared Care mean for me?

It can mean doing as much or as little as you want for yourself, supported by the nurses. As you gain confidence you may choose to learn more skills whilst remaining on a dialysis unit.
You may find that you want to dialyse more independently, in which case you could:

• Do your dialysis at home
• You could go to Cossham Self Care unit. This unit offers more independence than our other dialysis units can offer as it

You can participate in as much of your care as you want. This can include anything from taking your blood pressure, setting up the dialysis machine to starting, monitoring and finishing your dialysis.

What are the benefits?

• More control over your treatment
• Possible reduction in waiting time
• Become an expert in your condition and treatment
• Increased confidence
• Learn to a stage of your choice
• A stepping stone to home dialysis or Cossham Self Care unit
• Confidence when having holiday dialysis

What if you decide Shared Care dialysis isn’t for you?

Not a problem!

Shared Care dialysis isn’t for everyone and if it is not your preference, the dialysis nurses will continue to carry out your treatment.

North Bristol NHS Trust supports the national aim (outlined in the Government's Plan for Growth and implemented by the National Institute for Health Research) to increase the number of patients who have the opportunity to participate in research.

The national target for clinical and commercial research is that each trial should recruit the first patient within 70 days from the date an NHS organisation receives a valid research application.

Performance information on each trial hosted by North Bristol NHS Trust which received NHS permission within the last year can be viewed directly through the NIHR Submission Platform.

If you have any questions about the delivery of our current research, please contact the Research & Innovation Office via research@nbt.nhs.uk or 0117 414 9330.

The Living Well programme, which covers the elements of the Macmillan recovery package, is part of routine follow up care and assists people to:

• prepare for the future
• identify their individual needs
• support them to live well after treatment.

It is a combination of different interventions which, when delivered together can greatly improve the outcomes and coordination of patient care including, better and earlier identification of consequences of treatment.

For more information visit www.macmillan.org.uk

Choosing Where to Have Your Baby

Central Delivery Suite, Southmead Hospital, Southmead Road, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS10 5NB

The Central Delivery Suite, Southmead Hospital, is a consultant-led unit. If you have a medical condition, have experienced problems in a previous pregnancy or if complications arise during this pregnancy, you will be advised to have your baby in a consultant-led unit.

The Central Delivery Suite team includes:

• Midwives, student midwives and maternity care assistants
• Obstetricians
• Neonatologists (doctors for your baby)
• Anaesthetists.
• Housekeepers

The unit has two operating theatres and obstetric high dependency care can be provided within Central Delivery Suite.

Facilities at Central Delivery Suite:

• Ten birth rooms, most of which have an en-suite shower. This room can be changed to suit your needs. The bed can be moved away from the centre of the room. We have birthing mats and balls to facilitate making the environment suitable for your requirements
• A pool room for women who choose to labour /birth in water
• Additional bathrooms
• A kitchen is available for your use with tea and coffee making facilities
• Free WiFi
• Free car parking for all women, and their partners, in active labour. (Further details below).

Throughout labour the midwife will encourage, support and guide you, encouraging you to feel in control. We support your partners involvement at all times, and value their presence. You can have two birthing partners with you if you choose although, only one partner is permitted into theatre or recovery. We do not have waiting space for other visitors.

What pain management options are available?

• Aromatherapy
• TENS
• Birth pool
• Entonox (gas & air)
• Pethidine
• Patient controlled epidural analgesia

What happens after the birth?

After the birth, we encourage a calm, quiet and gentle time for you and your partner, we recommend skin to skin contact with your baby and will support you with feeding. One partner can stay with you. If everything has been straightforward with your birth and your baby is feeding well, the midwives will try to ensure that you can go home after six hours. You will be transferred to one of the postnatal wards after birth. If admitted to the ward please ask your birth partner to take home items you no longer require, so that all your belongings fit into the bedside locker and on the shelves of the cot provided on the postnatal wards.

Please use the main maternity reception to enter and exit our Maternity Services at Southmead, including AAU and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

• Upon arrival, you will be asked to sign in and given a lanyard.
• If you are a visitor, we kindly request you wear your lanyard at all times.
• Please keep noise in this area, and within the wards, to a minimum.
• When leaving, please ensure you sign yourself out and return your lanyard.

However, please use the Central Delivery Suite entrance if:

• You are in labour and are planning on birthing at either Mendip Birth Centre or the Central Delivery Suite. If your birth partner needs to move the car, get bags etc. after your arrival, they will be allowed out of this door for that purpose.
• You are having scans on the Central Delivery Suite including fetal medicine scans.
• You are having treatment on CDS including ECVs.

Entry and exit from any other route is not permitted without speaking to a member of staff. We appreciate your co-operation.

How do I get free car parking?

How it works:

• The details of the car and the surname of the woman in labour will be taken by the receptionist
• A form will need to be completed and submitted to the parking office
• The car must be parked in the car park near the Central Delivery Suite entrance to qualify for free parking
• Only one registration per couple i.e. the partner’s car or a nominated car if the partner does not have one.

Central Delivery Suite Tours

You can currently take virtual tours of our wards on our website. More information regarding face-to-face tours coming soon.  

For more information for you and your partner on planning where to give birth visit www.nhs.uk

Choosing Where to Have Your Baby

Mendip Birth Centre, Southmead Hospital, Southmead Road, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS10 5NB.

Mendip Birth Centre is a midwife-led Unit situated along the corridor from the Central Delivery Suite at Southmead Hospital, providing a quiet and tranquil environment for labour and birth. The Mendip Birth Centre is suitable if you are healthy, and your pregnancy has been straightforward.

Mendip Birth Centre can also support women who would not be eligible to birth at home or in Cossham Birth Centre but would still like to benefit from the Birth Centre environment. Individualised birth plans are developed with your own medical needs being considered. If you feel this is something you would like to explore please ask your community midwife for further details.

All the midwives working in the centre have a strong philosophy of women centred care and will support you to have an uncomplicated labour and birth.

Facilities at Mendip Birth Centre have been designed to provide comfort and support in labour and include:

• Three birthing rooms with floor mats and birth balls to support you
• A water pool in each birth room, should you wish to relax and/or give birth in water. Women who labour while immersed in water require fewer drugs for pain management, and are more likely to have a quicker labour
• En-suite facilities 
• A Double bed in all birth rooms rooms
• Partners can stay overnight
• CD player 
• A kitchen is available for your use
• Free WiFi
• Free car parking for all women, and their partners, in active labour. (Further details below). 

Throughout labour the midwife will encourage, support and guide you, encouraging you to feel in control. We support your partners involvement at all times, and value their presence. You can have two birthing partners with you if you choose.

A  study about place of birth supports healthy women with straightforward pregnancies choosing to give birth in an alongside unit such as Mendip Birth Centre. It showed that these women are more likely to have a vaginal birth. And are less likely to have medical interventions such as:

• An intravenous infusion to help with progress of labour
• An Epidural
• A forceps delivery
• A Caesarean section.

What pain management options are available?

• Aromatherapy
• TENS
• Birth pool
• Entonox (gas and air)
• Pethidine.

The midwives at Mendip Birth Centre are not be able to provide:

• Epidural pain management
• Induction of labour (starting contractions off) or a drip to speed up your labour
• Assisted delivery with forceps or ventouse
• Caesarean Birth.

What happens in an emergency?

Mendip Birth Centre has the equipment available and the staff trained for initial care in emergency situations. However, the facilities for more intensive or longer term resuscitation are not available at midwife-led units and therefore if women or babies at Mendip Birth Centre need medical treatment they will need to be transferred to the nearby Central Delivery Suite.

What happens after the birth?

After the birth, we encourage a calm, quiet and gentle time for you and your partner, with skin to skin contact with your baby and support with feeding. One partner can stay with you. If everything has been straightforward with your birth and your baby is feeding well, the midwives will try to ensure that you can go home after six hours.

Please use the main maternity reception to enter and exit our Maternity Services at Southmead, including AAU and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

• Upon arrival, you will be asked to sign in and given a lanyard.
• If you are a visitor, we kindly request you wear your lanyard at all times.
• Please keep noise in this area, and within the wards, to a minimum.
• When leaving, please ensure you sign yourself out and return your lanyard.

However, please use the Central Delivery Suite entrance if:

• You are in labour and are planning on birthing at either Mendip Birth Centre or the Central Delivery Suite. If your birth partner needs to move the car, get bags etc after your arrival, they will be allowed out of this door for that purpose.
• You are having scans on the Central Delivery Suite including fetal medicine scans.
• You are having treatment on CDS including ECVs.

Entry and exit from any other route is not permitted without speaking to a member of staff. We appreciate your co-operation.

How do I get free car parking?

How it works:

• The details of the car and the surname of the woman in labour will be taken by the receptionist
• A form will need to be completed and submitted to the parking office
• The car must be parked in the car park near the Central Delivery Suite entrance to qualify for free parking
• Only one registration per couple i.e. the partner’s car or a nominated car if the partner does not have one.

For more information for you and and your partner on planning where to give birth visit: 

www.nhs.uk

www.nhs.uk (First baby)

www.nhs.uk (If you have given birth before)