Other GP Information

Contacting staff for advice

If you require a specific urological opinion, you should contact the Consultant on-call; it is unlikely that a pre-registration house officer or clinical fellow will be able to answer your questions.

If you simply require an outpatient appointment for a patient, this should be made through the appropriate Consultant by phone, fax or letter and not through the junior staff.

Cross-referrals

Please try to avoid referring a patient generically (or directly to another Consultant) when the patient has previously seen one Consultant for the same problem in the recent past (i.e. within the last two years).

If the Consultant who saw the patient previously is not clear, all previous correspondence from the Urology Department includes the name of the Consultant under whose care that patient has been managed, even if such correspondence is from junior staff.

Discharge summaries

We aim to produce a computer-generated discharge note on the day of discharge. Occasionally, in the event of difficult problems the summary may be delayed.

If you do not receive a discharge summary, please contact the relevant Consultant’s secretary.

Emergency admissions

Please contact our on-call Clinical Fellow for emergency admissions. If you need advice as to whether a patient actually needs admission, contact the Consultant on-call.

Please note: Specialist Registrars are not available for telephone advice during the normal working day (08.00hr to 17.00hr). IF you need specific advice, please contact the on-call Consultant via the hospital switchboard.

If you cannot contact the appropriate member of staff or, if you feel that the advice/recommendations you have received are unsatisfactory, please discuss the problem directly, day or night, with the Consultant involved.

Erectile dysfunction clinic

This service is only available at Addenbrooke’s for patients whose erectile dysfunction is the result of treatment for urological cancer.

All other referrals should be directed to Carol Edmunds, Specialist Nurse at Hinchingbrooke Hospital (Tel: +44 (0)1480 416674).

Fax number

The fax number of the department is +44 (0)1223 216069.

When sending a fax to the Department of Urology, especially for a generic referral, please confirm the fax with a copy of the letter in the hospital post.

Please mark the letter with an annotation that it is confirmation of a fax, to avoid more than one appointment being made for the patient.

Generic referrals

Generic referrals are are now the norm but do not make them for patients who have seen a specific Consultant before for the same problem; patients previously seen for the same problem within the last 2 years should be referred to the Consultant who has seen the patient in the past.

Haematuria clinic

Refer on 2-week wait using one of these options:

Investigations prior to hospital assessment

Please try to arrange these at Addenbrooke’s, if possible, and ensure that the results are available before your patient is referred; we ask you not to send referral letters until all the results are available. Laboratory & radiology results at Addenbrooke’s can, of course, be accessed from our clinics but results from other centres cannot.

If you require advice on which investigations to perform for a specific clinical problem, please contact the Consultant concerned.

If X-rays or other investigations have been performed elsewhere, please ask for them to be sent to us before the patient’s appointment or ask the patient to bring them to the appointment. For X-rays or scans, this may necessitate the electronic transfer of images.

Lithotripsy administration

Lithotripsy can only be sanctioned by Consultants.

Administrative enquiries should be directed to the lithotripsy co-ordinator by telephoning +44 (0)1223 258535 or by e-mail.

Clinical and patient enquiries must go through the Consultant responsible for management of the patient and not through the co-ordinator.

Outpatient appointments

All referral letters are vetted by the on-call Consultant on a daily basis and appropriate priority is allocated immediately. Facilities are always available for genuinely urgent appointment at short notice; these should be arranged directly with the Consultant concerned.

The clinic receptionists, secretaries and junior staff are not authorised to make urgent outpatient appointments.

Do not ask patients to ring to expedite their own appointments. If you wish to expedite an appointment on medical grounds, discuss it directly with the Consultant involved or fax to 01223 216069.