Community Bladder and Bowel Service Southampton

The Community Bladder & Bowel Service is an excellent service for patients, carers and relatives and has several different elements to the service. With any service like this, there is a tendency to focus on pad provision for patients and not treatment, this service is different and ensures that patients get extensive treatment to try to resolve and improve conditions rather than just relying on pad provision.
Patients will be treated with dignity, compassion and consideration will be given to cultural and religious diversity.

The team consists of:

Bladder & Bowel Nurse Specialists who are all advanced clinical practitioners in
conservative therapies for bladder and bowel problems.
Women’s Health Physiotherapist (for patients with a Southampton GP).
Nurse Auxiliaries’, Clinical Support Facilitators’ and Administrative staff who work alongside the clinical team.

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Referral criteria

We operate an OPEN REFERRAL system to any individual who has a Southampton City or West Hampshire GP (if you have any queries regarding this, please contact us).

Health Professional?

Full service description

How our service can help

Our service can help in a number of different ways. We provide the basic Level 1 assessments for patients both in clinic and in the community. This involves assessment of their bladder and bowel needs, reassessment of product needs both in terms of size and type of product and ongoing review of these patients.

Our specialist qualified nurses and Women’s Health Physiotherapist provide Level 2 assessments for more complex patients, which could include:

Assessment to include physical vaginal and/or rectal examination (for bowel management) as appropriate and with consent of patient.
Bladder scans to determine whether the patient has residual urine. Please note, no anticholinergic agent medication should be given prior to a bladder scan.
Uroflowmetry to help the diagnosis of obstruction, stricture, and poor bladder pressure.
The development of a management treatment plan that the patient can take ownership.
Treatment such as bladder retraining, biofeedback, and pelvic floor exercises. Our staff are fully trained in these areas and have regular updates.
Acupuncture
Intermittent Self-catheterisation (ISC)
Follow up appointments for Prostate and Bladder Surgery
Prescription of containment products if required, which includes pads.

Other services

Training and education
Home Visits (within Southampton City)
A Home Delivery Service of continence products to people in their own homes
Advice and fitting of suitable continence aids and appliances
The service offers a range of advice to patients, carers, and healthcare professionals