If you or your relative has communication needs, please contact us as soon as possible via the telephone number or email address on your appointment letter. We can then organise the appropriate communication support such as an interpreter.

Our Interpreting Service includes:

• Language interpreters who have achieved a nationally accredited qualification.
• 24-hour access to over 200 languages via the telephone.
• Patient choice e.g. gender of interpreter, wider range of languages.
• British Sign Language interpreters and access to contact us though a sign language interpreter through InterpretersLive!.

We will support you with the most appropriate form of interpreter whether that is face-to-face, video or over the phone. If information is of a particularly sensitive nature, involves children, a lengthy consultation is needed or there is another reason why telephone interpreting cannot be used then face-to–face will be provided.

If you have any issues please get in touch with PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service).

Adult abuse

Any adult can be a victim of abuse, but some adults may be less able to protect themselves from abuse. When adults require support because of physical or mental disability, mental illness, learning difficulty, chronic illness or frailty they are sometimes referred to as ‘vulnerable adults’.

What is meant by abuse?

Abuse is a violation of a person’s human or civil rights. It can be unintentional or deliberate. Abuse can be:

• Physical
• Sexual
• Psychological/emotional
• Financial
• Neglect
• Discriminatory – when it relates to someone’s sexuality, culture, ethnicity or religion or disability
• Institutional – when people are mistreated as a result of the way a service (e.g. a hospital or care home) is run

What to do if I suspect abuse ?

Some types of abuse can also be crimes; if you suspect a crime has been committed, contact the police on 101 or 999 in an emergency.

Abuse of vulnerable adults can also be reported to Bristol Care Direct on 0117 9222000 or South Gloucestershire Customer Care Services desk on 01454 868007.

If you have a concern about the way a service is being run, you can contact Care Quality Commission on 03000 616161.

For further information, please visit Bristol City Council www.bristol.gov.uk or South Gloucestershire Council www.southglos.gov.uk/safeguardingadult

Safeguarding Adults at North Bristol NHS Trust

• We ensure that all our staff are safe to work with vulnerable adults by carrying out DBS checks.
• We have a policy on Safeguarding Adults which aims to ensure that all staff working with vulnerable adults have training in how to respond if they suspect a vulnerable adult is being abused and how to support this person.
• We are committed to working closely with the police, social services and community health staff to prevent abuse and to respond to possible situations of abuse to support the vulnerable adult and keep them safe.

A 'child' in law is anyone under 18 years of age and safeguarding children is everyone's business.

We recognise that all staff who come into contact with children, young people and their families in their work has a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. We work in partnership with other agencies which include the police, social care, education and the voluntary sector and are members of the two Local Safeguarding Children's Boards.

We are committed to ensuring the safety and the wellbeing of all Children and Young People by;

• Ensuring our staff are safe to work with children and young people by carrying out Criminal Records Bureau checks in line with statutory requirement.
• Having single and multi-agency policies and procedures that are up to date and accessible; these include a Safeguarding policy, a policy for children who do not attend their appointments, a flagging system for children about whom there are concerns and supervision for staff who hold a child protection caseload.
• Delivering a comprehensive programme of safeguarding training at all levels, across the organisation to all Staff.

What should you do if you have a concern about a child?

The Trust Safeguarding team do not provide a service to the public however if you have concerns about a child you should: contact the local authority Children and Young Peoples Services, contact details are available from the local council offices.

Declaration of compliance

Every patient has the right to receive high quality care that is safe, effective and respects their privacy and dignity.

North Bristol NHS Trust is committed to providing every patient with same sex accommodation. This helps to safeguard their privacy and dignity when they are often at their most vulnerable.

North Bristol NHS Trust is pleased to confirm that it has completed and maintained its plans to eliminate mixed sex accommodation where it is in the overall best interests of the patient, or reflects their personal choice’.

Our aim is to have the necessary facilities, resources and culture to ensure that admitted patients will only share the room where they sleep with members of the same sex, and same-sex toilets and bathrooms will be close to their bed area. With the opening of the new state-of-the art Brunel hospital facility, at Southmead Hospital Bristol, this means over 600 of the 1,000 beds at the Trust are single rooms with their own en-suite bathroom.

Sharing with members of the opposite sex will only happen when clinically necessary, for example the Intensive Care Unit.

What this mean for patients

Patients admitted to North Bristol NHS Trust can expect to find:

• The room where your bed is will only have patients of the same sex as you
• Your toilet and bathroom will be just for your gender, and will be close to your bed area.

It is possible that there will be both men and women patients on the ward, but they will not share your sleeping area. 

You may share some communal space, such as day rooms or dining rooms, and it is very likely that you will see both men and women patients as you move around the hospital (e.g. on your way to X-ray or the operating theatre).

Visitors of the opposite gender will come into the ward, and potentially where your bed is, and this may include patients visiting each other. It is almost certain that both male and female nurses, doctors and other staff will come into your bed area.

If you need help to use the toilet or take a bath (e.g. you need a hoist or special bath) then you may be taken to a "unisex" bathroom used by both men and women, but a member of staff will be with you, and other patients will not be in the bathroom at the same time.

We are also committed to ensuring all patients are treated as individuals and that all patients' privacy and dignity are maintained.

The NHS will not turn patients away just because a "right-sex" bed is not immediately available.

The HM Treasury and North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) are committed to openness and transparency and below are the monthly listings of NBT's expenditure over £25,000.

The listings show the suppliers we work with. If we have an invoice that's over £25,000 and the cost has been split across a number of teams, these are listed as separate entries and the value is likely to be below £25,000.

This publication is in line with HM Government’s commitment to transparency in public sector expenditure, more details are available on the Data Gov website. 

Download information:

Adults

We diagnose and treat all benign and malignant tumours of the Central nervous system, including the Brain and spinal cord. The majority of Brain tumours that are referred to us turn out to be either Gliomas or metastases. The remainder comprise other rare malignant tumours of the brain and spinal cord, as well as benign tumours such as meningiomas. Tumours that are located in or near the base of skull are dealt with by a separate group of specialists and all such patients are discussed in the fortnightly Skull base MDT, before an appropriate decision is made. Tumours of the Pituitary gland, and Acoustic neuromas (otherwise known as Vestibular schwannomas) also fall within the remit of the skull base group, and a dedicated team of specialists with expertise in this area manage this group of patients.

For more information about each tumour group please follow the links below. Groups that have not been mentioned here may be very rare and suitability of treatment for such groups will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Every patient with a Central nervous system tumour referred to us is discussed at a Multi disciplinary meeting (which constitutes members according to NICE recommendations including Neurosurgeons, Neuroradiologists, Neuro-Oncologists (cancer specialists), Neurologists, Clinical Nurse specialists, Physiotherapists, Palliative care specialists and other Specialists like ENT surgeons, Maxillofacial surgeons and Endocrinologists where appropriate) which meets once a week for most tumours and once a month for skull base, Pituitary and Acoustic tumours.

Primary Intracranial Tumours

• Gliomas
  •  Astrocytoma
  • Oligodendroglioma 
• Ependymoma
• Meningiomas
• Pitiutary Adenoma
• Vestibular Schwannoma

 Secondary Intracranial Tumours

• Cerebral Metastases

Priorities for improvement

Every year the Trust sets priorities for improvement which are consulted upon internally and externally and represent areas where we would like to see significant improvement over the course of the year.  In the Quality Account we lay out how we have worked towards achieving them and the evidence we have to show our progress so far.

The priorities for 2024/25 were:

1. Outstanding Patient Experience: We will put patients at the core of our services, respecting their choice, decisions and voice whilst becoming a partner in the management of conditions.
2. High Quality Care – Better by Design: We will support our patients to access timely, safe, and effective care with the aim of minimising patient harm or poor experience as a result.
3. High Quality Care – Better by Design: We will minimise patient harm whilst experiencing care and treatment within NBT services.
4. High Quality Care – Better by Design: We will demonstrate a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty, in which concerns about safety are listened to, safety events are investigated and reported thoroughly, and lessons are learned to continually identify and embed good practices.
5. High Quality Care – Better by Design: We will plan for the demographic changes in our local population and respond to health inequalities whilst investing in our community assets to deliver care.

In writing 

North Bristol NHS Trust
Trust Headquarters
Southmead Hospital
Southmead Road
Westbury-on-Trym
Bristol
BS10 5NB

For general enquiries telephone switchboard on 0117 9505050

View a full list of Southmead Hospital telephone numbers. 

Cossham Hospital
Lodge Road
Kingswood
Bristol
BS15 1LF
Telephone: 0117 3408400

View a full list of Cossham Hospital telephone numbers. 

Bristol Centre for Enablement
Highwood Pavillions
Jupiter Road
Patchway
Bristol
BS34 5BW
Telephone: 0300 3000110

Frenchay
Frenchay Park Road
Frenchay
Bristol
BS16 1LE

For employment queries or current vacancies see our careers section. 

For advice, compliments and complaints email complaints@nbt.nhs.uk

For errors or omissions on this website please email nbtcommunications@nbt.nhs.uk