Urology Services

At the cutting edge of surgical innovation, Urology is at the forefront of delivering the best care to our patients with diseases or cancers of the urinary tract. Robotic surgery plays a large role in the management of Urological cancers, in particular prostate, bladder and kidney cancers. Our consultants who sub-specialise in robotic surgery include Mr Manal Kumar, Mr Thiagarajan Nambirajan, and Ms Nina Patrick.

This service offers an excellent opportunity for patients to meet both surgeons (urologist) and radio/chemotherapy doctors (oncologists) at the same time. This ensures the patients are given evidence based; balanced information and opportunities to ask questions in what can be a stressful time in their life for the treatment of Urological cancers.

Men who have raised Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) can be referred to this clinic. A certain amount of PSA is present in every man’s blood, and this can rise with age. A raised PSA, however, can sometimes indicate a sign of prostate cancer, but this is not always the case.

A urologist or urology specialist nurse will assess the patient in an initial triage, and then either offer a direct MRI scan of the prostate followed by a clinic consultation, or an initial clinic consultation with a urologist to further investigate causes for a raised PSA, and offer a range of tests and investigations.

Men and women who have noticed blood in their urine, or those that the GP as detected microscopic blood in the urine on dipstick testing can be referred to this clinic (based on certain criteria). The patients will undergo an initial triage by a urology specialist nurse followed by requesting imaging of the urinary tract (CT scan or ultrasound scan). They are then seen in the haematuria clinic by a Urologist who will undertake a thorough assessment of the medical history followed by examination and a camera inspection of the bladder (flexible cystoscopy).

Three specialist stone surgeons provide expert care to patients presenting with stones of the urinary tract. The consultants Mr Snehal Patel, Mr James Glendinning and Mr Kee Wong, will carry out a thorough assessment of the stones in the urinary tract, and offer patients various tailored treatment options to treat these stones. The majority of these treatments are provided as a day case procedures, and include extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) or ureteroscopy and LASER stone fragmentation. For larger and more complex stones, we also offer procedures such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and endoscopic combined intrarenal surgery (ECIRS).

Men and women with any problems related to passing urine (referred to as Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms) are seen in this clinic. They have an assessment by either a Urologist or a nurse specialist and have a flow test, bladder scan and symptom assessment questionnaires filled to clearly understand the symptoms faced by the individual. They are given advice or commenced on treatment or even offered surgical options. If you have urinary symptoms you may be asked to come to the clinic with a comfortably full bladder to do a ‘flow test’ to help in the diagnosis of your condition.

Men with erectile dysfunction are seen in this clinic by a nurse specialist or Urologist. After assessment they are started on treatment or offered surgical options.

Our Urology specialist nurses have a vast wealth of experience who have been part of our department for over 10 years. These include Sister Jane Scoble, Sister Carol Wynn and Sister Julie Jones. They provide a well-established and various clinics including both diagnostic and follow-up and therapeutic services: 

Diagnostic and follow-up

• Urodynamic clinic – a very important diagnostic tool used to investigate and manage patients presenting with LUTS. It is a test of studying the bladder filling and emptying and how this relates to your symptoms.
• Stone clinic follow-up of patients who have undergone stone surgery, or are under surveillance of their stones.

Therapeutic

• Trial removal of catheter (TWOC) clinic – for those patients who have a catheter in place, and need to have this removed under supervision.
• Intravesical treatment clinic (for patients with bladder cancer or interstitial cystitis) – for patients requiring BCG treatment for their bladder cancer. Or for patients requiring bladder instillations for the management of interstitial cystitis.

The speciality of Urology covers a multitude of conditions, which is categorised amongst the following two headings – malignant (cancerous) and benign conditions –

Malignant (cancer)

Urologists deal with cancers of the urinary tract. These include cancers of the kidney, ureter, bladder, prostate, penis and testis. We are a tertiary referral centre for the surgical management and removal of cancers in the kidney, ureter, bladder, prostate and the penis. We have patients coming to our department from a large catchment area including the Wirral, Chester, Warrington and Isle of Man.     We offer high quality and expert surgical care delivered by consultant urological surgeons who have trained and specialised in this field. This includes offering key-hole laparoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery.

Benign conditions

Urology encompasses a varied breadth of benign conditions that can really impact on a man or woman’s quality of life. These include, but not limited to the following –

Kidney – stones, infections, cysts.

Ureter – stones, strictures.

Bladder – stones, infections, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) such as overactive bladder, incontinence, urgency.

Prostate – benign enlargement of the prostate causing LUTS.

Testis – chronic pain, cysts, infections.

Penis – erectile dysfunction, Peyronies disease.

Urological Surgeons

• Mr Manal Kumar
• Mr Nigel Parr
• Mr Richard Stephenson
• Mr Thiagarajan Nambirajan
• Mr Andrew Cliff
• Mr Snehal Patel
• Mr James Glendinning
• Ms Nina Patrick
• Mr Kee Wong

Associate Specialist

• Mr Jambulingam Ravindran

Specialist Trainees

• Mr Huw Garrod
• Mr Zain Siddiqui
• Mr Omar El-Taji

Urology Clinical Fellows

• Mr Rohit Bhattar
• Mr Balakrishnan Gurumurthi
• Miss Mariele Trimboli

Urology Specialist Nurses

• Sister Jane Scoble
• Sister Carol Wynn
• Sister Julie Jones

Advanced Nurse Practitioner

• Sister Hannah Evans

Urology-oncology Macmillan nurses

• Sister Gill Riley
• Sister Beverley Rogers
• Sister Nerys Jacob

Contact - 0151 604 7477

Secretaries

• Mrs Paula Percy. Secretary to Mr Nigel Parr, Mr Snehal Patel and Mr Arie Parnham - Contact 0151 604 7125
• Mrs Linda Higgins. Secretary to Mr Manal Kumar and Mr Thiagarajan Nambirajan - Contact 0151 604 7769
• Mr Jean Young. Secretary Mr Kee Wong and Mr Jambulingam Ravindran - Contact 0151 604 7748
• Mrs Tracy James. Secretary to Mr James Glendinning and Ms Nina Patrick - Contact 0151 604 7342
• Mrs Linda Marks. Secretary to Mr Andrew Cliff and Mr Richard Stephenson - Contact 0151 604 7217
• Mrs Susan Forrester
• Ms Samantha Hislop

Ward 20

Ward 20 is the dedicated Urology ward at Arrowe Park Hospital site. Ward manager Sister Louise Hughes and rest of the highly experienced nurses have a wealth of knowledge in managing patients with urological conditions, including postoperative patients.

Contact – 0151 604 7015 (for general enquries)

Ward 20 is the dedicated Urology ward at Arrowe Park Hospital site. Ward manager Sister Louise Hughes and rest of the highly experienced nurses have a wealth of knowledge in managing patients with urological conditions, including postoperative patients.