Appointments, assessments and patient pathways
Where appropriate you may be offered a diagnostic clinic attendance run by specialist nurses or a doctor. There may be specialist nurses who can offer a diagnosis and treatment plan or the tests may be needed before seeing the doctor at a later date so that a treatment plan can be formulated with you.
One Stop Haematuria Clinic
If you have seen blood in your urine or if the GP has detected non-visible blood in your urine by testing it in the surgery then they will make a referral to this clinic. The clinic is designed to determine the cause of the blood in the urine.
The clinic will involve you being seen and assessed by a doctor, an ultrasound scan of the urinary system, under local anaesthetic a flexible camera will be used to inspect the lining of your bladder. The order of these tests varies but all are usually necessary.
Flow Clinic
If you have urinary symptoms that suggest you may have a blockage to the flow of your urine we will ask you to attend a flow clinic in clinical measurements department. If you attend with a comfortably full bladder the team will ask you to pass urine in a toilet with special meter to allow us to convert your flow into a graphical picture. The team will then use a simple ultrasound scan to see if your bladder has been emptied. Ideally we ask for 2 flows to be measured during the clinic visit.
Urodynamic studies
If you have urinary symptoms and the urologists are having difficulty in making the correct diagnosis then they may request specialist tests called urodynamics, this takes part in the Clinical Measurements department
The test provides detailed pressure monitoring of the bladder to determine how well the muscle of the bladder is working. The test takes between 1 and 2 hours to complete. The tests are run by specialist nurses who will discuss your symptoms prior to the test being carried out. It will involve passing a pressure sensor into the bladder and into the back passage.
TWOC Clinic
If for some reason you have not been able to pass urine and have had a catheter (tube draining the bladder), it may be recommended that you undergo a trial without catheter. You will be sent an appointment for the clinic in clinical measurements, where the staff will remove the catheter. You may be asked to be available to do a urine flow test before you are discharged from hospital.