Heartbeat: Clinic for menopausal bleeding offers one trip for patients

June 23, 2021

A one-stop clinic for post-menopausal women which cuts down the number of appointments a patient has to attend has been developed by the gynaecology team.

Despite the post-menopausal bleeding clinic (PMB) being a condensed service, it has not compromised the care delivered by clinicians but instead improved it.

Tiff Jones, Sister, said: “Traditionally, women attending for this issue would be seen several times, but this new way of treating patients means that they will spend around an hour and a half at the hospital and will see us once.

“We’d like to stress that this has not compromised the care we deliver in any way – in fact, it has made it better.

“We have always had sessions clinics dedicated to the care and investigation of women who bleed after the menopause, which is the main sign of womb cancer. A patient is considered post-menopausal one year after the natural cessation of periods, so if she bleeds from the vagina after this time, it warrants further investigation.

“Traditionally, a woman would attend for a pelvic ultrasound scan which would be followed by a consultation and biopsy if required. She would then have a further appointment for a hysteroscopy camera investigation, and she may then need a theatre date for treatment.

“As a team, we wanted to do better for our ladies, and new technology enabled us to do this. Mr Ayman Ewies is our Consultant Lead Clinician and, he has been instrumental in moving the service forward.”

Tiff added: “To ensure we could deliver a complete one-stop clinic, we also invested in the training of a specialised nurse hysteroscopist. It enables us to provide sessions around the busy consultant rota and backfill consultant clinics when they are on annual leave to ensure the service continues to be delivered no matter what.

“The development and expansion of this service allows us to see women as we previously did with the investigation starting with an ultrasound scan, but also with specially equipped rooms, new technology and highly trained staff across the team.

“We can now deliver all the necessary investigations and procedures, therapeutic and diagnostic treatments in one visit avoiding the need for theatre settings and general anaesthetics.

“For the majority of women, this new service ensures the patient only has to attend one hospital appointment. It increases the speed at which we can perform required surgeries and obtain histology results. We hope to eliminate any delays in treatment pathways and target times, but our main focus is to make our ladies journey more complete in just one visit.

We always want to be the best team that we can, to support our women every step of the way.”