UPDATE - Issue 32 - Winter 2008
Community based BPH service a success
A before and after story of how patients with suspected Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) are treated shows benefits in time and money. Patients used to wait thirty weeks to be seen at outpatients in Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust. The cost of diagnosing how to treat their BPH-like urinary symptoms was around £400. Now patients are referred to a Primary Care assessment service.
Patients receive a full clinical assessment of BPH/LUTS, including ultrasound scans of prostate, bladder and kidneys, along with uroflowmetry. Images of the ultrasound scans are transmitted to a radiologist at the University of Portsmouth, who reads and discusses them while the patient is being examined. Cost per patient is now about £100 whilst referrals to secondary care have been cut by 76% and waiting times for those referred to less than 13 weeks.
To reach this happy state of affairs a capital investment of some £32,000 was made and the GP who administers the scheme, Dr Ashok Desphande, re-trained, while being mentored by a consultant and, in the process, gained a postgraduate diploma in urology.