BECKENHAM HOSPITAL

Urgent Care Centres provide treatment for patients suffering from urgent but not life threatening conditions such as cuts and bruises, mild chest infections, coughs and colds, fever, sickness, vomiting and simple fractures. The anaesthetic department provides anaesthesia for general surgery, gynaecology, obstetrics, orthopaedics and trauma, urology, radiology and the community dental service. We undertake pre-operative assessment in the wards, in a specialised out-patient clinic and in the surgical pre-admission clinics. This enables us to assess higher-risk cases at an early stage, plan the care with the patient and the surgeon, and involve the specialist nurses to organise pain control postoperatively.

In the obstetric unit, we have expanded our service to provide nine sessions of consultant cover, plus one from an associate specialist, each week, as well as 24 hour cover from the duty doctor on the registrar rota. We offer a weekly out-patient assessment session dedicated to obstetrics and take part in ante-natal teaching classes and programmes. The department has a high standard of modern equipment to work with, and is working with the management to keep up with the latest developments in both theatre and pre-assessment technology.

These will enable us to improve safety still further, and to provide a more efficient service tailored to the needs of the individual patient. The department provides a pain management service, with outpatient clinics for chronic pain, treatment sessions and an acute pain service for inpatients. In the operating theatres, specialised anaesthetic nurses assist the anaesthetists and also support our work in resuscitation and assessment on the wards.