 | Including the country's second city and the previously industrialised heart of the UK, the West Midlands is a diverse, vibrant and multi-cultural region. Urology care is delivered through 19 departments and 3 cancer networks. Serving a population of almost 6 million, the region delivers a broad urology service as well as a comprehensive tertiary referral service through its regional centres. The university medical schools of Birmingham, Warwick & Keele provide both excellent educational opportunities and world-class research. At present, the region has over 60 Consultants with responsibility for training 24 Specialist Registrars in 14 training units. |
Alexandra Hospital, Redditch
Worcestershire is a mainly rural county lying between Birmingham and the South West. The Urology Department has a single inpatient site in Redditch with a 6-Consultant complement. There is a large workload of radical pelvic surgery and laparoscopic surgery is well-established. This was the first department in the region to provide HoLEP. There is also a substantial workload of procedures for stones (flexible URS, PCNL), stress incontinence & basic paediatric urology.
Trainees working in Worcestershire can expect to build up significant surgical experience, particularly in pelvic oncology.
George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton
George Eliot Hospital is a busy district general hospital providing secondary care to the population of North Warwickshire and adjoining areas.
The Urology team comprises 2.2 Consultants, one Urology Staff Grade surgeon, one Specialist Registrar, one core surgical trainee and a F1 doctor. Apart from pelvic cancer surgery (which is referred to the University Hospital Coventry), the department provides excellent training in core urology. We have facilities for saline TURP and TUVP, and promote TURP on a 23-hour stay without post-operative irrigation.
We also provide excellent exposure to stone surgery; we have flexible ureteroscopes and a Holmium laser for ureteroscopic stone treatment together with a lithoclast and an ultrasonic lithotripter for PCNL.
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Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of approximately 1 million covering Sutton Coldfield, East Birmingham and Solihull. Elective urology is provided at Good Hope, Heartlands and Solihull Hospitals. All three sites have Emergency Departments but all urological emergencies are admitted to Heartlands Hospital.
Across the three sites, there are 8 Consultants, 2 Associate Specialists, 4 Specialist Registrars, 2 non-training middle grades and 8 Clinical Nurse Specialists. There are holmium and "green-light" lasers at Solihull and Good Hope, and a mobile lithotripter visits the Heartlands and Good Hope sites.
Birmingham city centre is 7 miles away from Good Hope and Solihull Hospitals, and 3 miles from Heartlands Hospital. It has an extensive array of restaurants, theatres, first-class sporting venues, the ICC and the NEC. There are excellent travel links by road and rail.
 | | Heartlands Hospital Heartlands Hospital is based in East Birmingham and provides a comprehensive urological service to a large urban population. It is one of two cancer centres in Birmingham and provides both open & laparoscopic cancer surgery. Mr Ojha, Mr Sarmah and Mr Jaganathan provide open cancer services whilst Mr Phillips and Mr Nair provide the laparoscopic service. Mr Morris provides the specialist stone service and urodynamics. Click here to see recent publications from the Birmingham Heartlands unit. |
 | | Good Hope Hospital Sutton Coldfield is a dormitory town which merges to the south with Birmingham but is surrounded by green fields to the north. Within the town is Sutton Park, one of the largest urban parks in Europe (over 2000 acres). Good Hope functions as a traditional District General Hospital with a busy Emergency Department, an ITU and 500 beds. Apart from pelvic cancer surgery (which is performed at Heartlands), there is excellent exposure to all branches of urology. Mr Syed has a specialist interest in stone surgery and Mr Foster specialises in andrology. The unit hosts the supra-regional penile cancer service. Click here to see recent publications from the Good Hope unit. |
 | | Solihull Hospital Solihull, with a population of approximately 200,000, is one of the most prosperous towns in the Midlands. It merges with Birmingham to the north and east; it is limited by the M42 to the south and west with green fields beyond that. Solihull Hospital is a District General Hospital. Urology provide outpatient, diagnostic and day case procedures on-site and there are inpatient facilities for intermediate endoscopic surgery. |
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Hereford County Hospital
Hereford Acute Trust is an ideal starting point for ST3 training. Three Consultant Urologists (one linked with Gloucester) offer training in core urology with exposure to uro-oncology, stone surgery and urodynamics.
On-call commitments are minimal and any spare time can be spent exploring the beautiful, surrounding countryside which includes the Welsh Marches.
Queen's Hospital, Burton
Burton on Trent is a busy Midlands town, famous for its brewing industry and for the production of Marmite. The Derbyshire Peak District is close by.
The hospital is a 420-bedded district general hospital with a cancer unit. The department provides a diagnostic and core urology service to the local population and, with only one urological trainee, provides unparalleled exposure to core urology.
Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust
The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the larger West Midlands Hospitals, serving the population of Wolverhampton and parts of Staffordshire and Shropshire, with 700 beds and 5000 staff. It is a teaching hospital linked to the Medical School of the University of Birmingham. It is a Cancer centre within the Greater Midlands Cancer Network providing tertiary referral services to the wider population of the Black Country. There is a thriving Research and Development Department which also has links with the University of Wolverhampton.
The Urology department, at present, comprises four Consultant Urologists plus a locum Consultant, with plans for a substantive fifth post during 2011. We provide the full range of general urology services and the expanded team will also provide specialist interests in most aspects of Urological practice including uro-oncology, laparoscopy, stone disease, general paediatric urology, andrology, urodynamics, lower tract dysfunction and female urology.
We provide excellent training for all levels of trainee and are a popular choice amongst trainees. Three Higher Surgical Trainees are attached to our unit at any one time with a separate middle grade Trust Fellow and two core trainees. We have a dedicated team of Advanced Nurse Practitioners providing support to all aspects of our service, as well as our Urology nurse-led Hospital at Home service.
Theatres are equipped with a full range of urological instrumentation, including laparoscopic equipment and flexible ureteroscopes. We recently acquired a holmium laser for prostate enucleation and stone fragmentation. Robotic-assisted laparoscopy is due to start in 2011, to further expand our minimally-invasive work. We have well-established links with radiology, including provision of urodynamics run by our department.
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Russells Hall Hospital
Russells Hall is a 760-bed hospital serving a population of around 410,00 people. Black country patients are, in general, a pleasure to look after and the hospital has a strong sense of community.
There are three Consultants, with plans to expand to four in 2011. Mr Anderson provides the genito-urethral reconstructive service (GURS) for the West Midlands region and offers Specialist Registrars their only opportunity to learn GURS within the West Midlands rotation. Mr Chakravarti performs laparoscopic surgery and Mr Krasnowski, stone surgery. We have a Thulium laser, with morcellator, for prostates and a Holmium laser for stones.
The department is supported by extremely able Clinical Nurse Specialists and our Specialist Registrars enjoy quiet, out-of-hours on-call, with six sessions in theatre, no flexible cystoscopy clinics and practically no administration. As a result of this we typically benefit from having an examination-year Specialist Registrar.
We are not a designated cancer centre. Previous motivated Specialist Registrars have arranged their own urogynaecology training and have been released to attend other hospitals.
Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust serves a diverse ethnic population of approximately 450,000 in the north western quadrant of Birmingham. A team of six Consultants provides urology services, with various sub-specialist interests, and there are three Specialist Registrar trainees.
The Trust is a referral centre for the stone service and, by linking with University Hospital Birmingham, provides for both open and laparoscopic pelvic uro-oncology
It has a high reputation amongst trainees in the West Midlands for the diversity of training offered on its two principal sites (Sandwell General Hospital & Birmingham City Hospital). We are able to cover all aspects of core urology including green-light laser prostatectomy, comprehensive management of renal stone disease with special stone clinics, laparoscopic/open surgery and urogynaecology. There is also provision for experience in core paediatric urology at one of the sites.
Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is the main provider of district general hospital services for half a million people in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.
There are four Consultants, two specialist registrars from the West Midlands, two associate specialists, two core trainees, one trust doctor and two foundation doctors working in the Urology Department.
The unit is also a cancer centre for pelvic resection as a part of the Greater Midlands Cancer Network. The hospital provides training opportunities in general urology, videourodynamics, endourology, pelvic oncology (including neobladder reconstruction) and laparoscopic surgery.
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University Hospital Birmingham
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust) is a half-a-billion pound new Hospital with an iconic building in Edgbaston. With more than 6,900 staff, it is the leading teaching hospital in the West Midlands.The Trust provides a full range of super-specialised services and treats 500,000 patients each year.
The Department of Urology has had well-established sub-specialisation for over 15 years with Mr Doherty, Mr Bhatt, Mr Patel and Mr Viney dealing with urological oncology. They perform all major cancer procedures including laparoscopic cancer surgery. As required by the IOG for urological cancers, all major urological pelvic cancer surgery for Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust is performed at QEH by surgeons from that Trust. The Department provides a regional service for complex renal cancer surgery, including nephron-sparing surgery and surgery for vena caval extension; we also provide a regional service for testicular cancer as well as a laparoscopic pelvic cancer service.
The other three urologists provide a service in benign urology. Mr Arnold sub-specialises in neuro-urology, as well as providing "ambulatory (office) urology", Mr Almallah sub-specialises in urethral reconstruction and in male/female incontince (with particular interest in post-prostatectomy incontinence) whilst Mr Subramonian sub-specialises in stone surgery and laparoscopy.
The department also has 7 Clinical Nurse Specialists.
University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust is one of the UK's largest teaching Trusts, responsible for managing two major hospitals in Coventry and Warwickshire, between them serving a population of over a million people. We are the principal teaching hospital for Warwick University Medical School and Coventry University, with whom we work in close partnership to develop innovative medical education programmes and clinical research.
The Urology department comprises five Consultants, one Associate Specialist, two SpRs, two Staff Grade Doctors, one Research Fellow and three FY1 Doctors.
There is a large workload including laparoscopic surgery, radical pelvic surgery, endourology, urogynaecology and male infertility. It is a tertiary referral centre providing complex specialist services across Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond. There is also a large renal transplant programme in the General Surgery Department and the hospital is the cancer centre for the Arden Cancer Network.
There is good access to major road networks and local attractions include Warwick Castle, Stratford Upon Avon and Coombe Abbey Country Park.
University Hospital of North Staffs
The University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust & Keele University Medical School have a long-established record of both undergraduate and postgraduate training. The hospital serves a North Staffordshire population of over 500,000 and provides a Cancer Centre service to 800,000.
The department is staffed by 5 Consultant Urological Surgeons, each with subspeciality interests. Laparoscopic surgery and major pelvic oncology are well-established and there are dedicated urology theatres, wards, outpatients and local anaesthetic facilities.
There are 5 middle-grade trainees, 3 of whom are part of the West Midlands Urology training scheme. All trainees are encouraged to participate in audit and clinical research, and there are extensive facilities to support these activities, both at the hospital and in the university. The hospital has, over the years, acquired an excellent reputation for urological training in the West Midlands.
