The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology provides acute and elective services to patients from Dudley and neighbouring boroughs.  Services are mainly based at Russells Hall Hospital but general gynaecology clinics are run from Corbett Outpatient Centre and also Hume Street Clinic in Kidderminster.

Our specialist combined clinics like Obstetrics/Diabetic/endocrine, Obstetric clinics for vulnerable women and combined clinics with Haematology take place on a regular basis.

Our Gynaecology specialist clinics include colposcopy, diagnostic & therapeutic hysteroscopy, postmenopausal bleeding clinics, rapid access gynaecology oncology clinics, specialist endometriosis and specialist urogynaecology clinics.

We have recently been awarded the status of accredited endometriosis centre providing advanced surgical treatment to endometriosis patients.

Our ultrasound services are provided by trained sonographers in both obstetrics and gynaecology.  We have three foetal medicine consultants providing specialist obstetric ultrasound scanning for foetal anomalies. We do not provide amniocentesis or chorionic villous biopsy.

Twelve consultant obstetricians lead the care of women with high risk pregnancies, while community midwives manage the care of the women deemed to be low risk.  Intrapartum care for all deliveries is provided by midwives based in the Maternity Department.  We deliver approximately 4200 babies per year.

The maternity unit has a total of 45 beds: 33 single ensuite rooms and 12 beds located in three, four-bedded bays.

The maternity unit has close links with the paediatric service for the provision of neonatal care and the anaesthetic team for provision of pain relief and management of women with serious pregnancy complications. The service also comprises a full community midwifery service.

There is a dedicated team who support new mothers with breastfeeding in and out of hospital. We provide smoking cessation services to our antenatal patients and regarded as one of the top trusts providing this service efficiently in West Midlands.

We provide teaching and training to medical students from Birmingham University and St George’s University Grenada.  We provide excellent training opportunities to postgraduate trainees.

We operate a protected mealtimes policy at lunchtime between 12pm and 1pm every day.

The aim is to provide a protected period of time where ward activities are reduced to a minimum so that full focus is on patients’ nutritional needs. This gives patients the time to eat their meals comfortably.

The RED tray system is used to highlight patients who nursing staff have assessed and identified as requiring some level of assistance with eating. These may include patients with physical/dexterity weakness, cognitive impairment or those requiring specialist support e.g. speech language therapy or those needing specific dietary support prescribed by dieticians.

By protecting the lunchtime meal and providing supportive measures, a better mealtime experience will be promoted. This is expected to encourage patients to eat more food and therefore improve their nutritional intake.

The Trust currently has approximately 30 volunteers who undertake the role of mealtime assistants. This involves preparing the patient for his/her meal, assisting the patient to choose an appropriate meal option from the menu, cutting up food or assisting with feeding .

Each ward has its own individual menus for the type of patients it is catering for. We also offer options for patients with special dietary needs, such as coeliac, vegetarian or halal. For more information, please speak to a member of staff.

If you would like to assist with your relative’s meal or have any queries, please speak to the nurse in charge. Arrangements can be made for patients with special dietary needs to discuss their requirements with a Dietician, Catering Manager or a Speech and Language Therapist if modifications are required due to swallowing difficulties.

The neurology department is one of the smaller teams at the Trust and is made up of three consultants and two clinical nurse specialists in Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s.

The department has two main arms to its work:

• Providing an outpatient service for neurological patients
• Providing acute neurological consultations for inpatients being admitted to hospital through the emergency department – by diagnosing impaired function of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves and muscles

The Trust does not have inpatient facilities for patients with neurological conditions at present. Patients who are diagnosed with severe and complex neurological conditions in outpatients or in hospital are transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Neurosciences Centre in Birmingham.

Clinic times

Russells Hall Hospital

• Morning – Morning
• Wednesday – Morning
• Thursday – Afternoon

Guest Hospital Outpatient Centre

• Monday – Afternoon
• Tuesday – Morning
• Wednesday – Morning
• Thursday – Morning and afternoon

Dudley, Wolverhampton and South West Staffordshire Breast Screening Service

Russells Hall Hospital is the headquarters of the Dudley, Wolverhampton and South West Staffordshire Breast Screening Service.

The service comprises of three mobile screening units based at different community locations throughout the region.

Images taken on the mobile units are sent to assessment centres for reporting and ladies are asked to return, if necessary, to the nearest assessment centre for further review and potential treatment. The service works to local, regional and national Quality Assurance standards and utilises modern technology for the best achievable outcome for ladies.

Ladies aged between 50-70 who have a GP within the area are invited to attend for screening every 3 years at a mobile unit or static site if necessary.

Click here for more information about this service on the Breast Screening mini site

The service can be contacted on (01384) 244177

The Mortuary/Bereavement Service’s role is to provide a sensitive and efficient service during what is a difficult time.

As well as undertaking post mortems to establish exact causes of death, the service deals with doctors for the completion of medical certificates and cremation papers, arranges viewings of deceased in our chapel of rest and also regularly deals with the police and coroner.

The service also liaises with funeral directors to release bodies for burial or cremation. For certain religious cultures, this has to be done quickly and we respond sensitively to this need.

We are a small but dedicated team comprising of trained and qualified mortuary technicians and experienced bereavement officers.

Outpatient Antimicrobial Treatment (OPAT)

OPAT is a service that offers IV antibiotic therapy to you as an outpatient instead of admitting you to hospital, thereby avoiding unnecessary, prolonged admission to hospital.
The common conditions where OPAT is used are cellulitis and pyelonephritis but any stable patient needing long period of antibiotics can be taken up by the service at the discretion of the AMU consultant. Examples of these cases can be subdural abscess, diabetic foot, bronchiectasis, osteomyelitis, discitis etc.

HOT clinics

Daily HOT clinics, for hospital outpatient treatments, are run by an AMU consultant and registrars where we see you if you are newly referred by your GP or you have been recently discharged from hospital and need urgent follow up. GPs can refer patients directly to HOT clinic by contacting the AMU secretaries on extension 1783 (Adele Robinson) and 2654 (Victoria Green).

The Emergency Assessment Unit (EAU) includes a dedicated GP assessment and triage facility.

The EAU comprises of 36 assessment spaces, 13 of which are in the GP area, three rapid assessment cubicles, two triage rooms and a procedure room. A patient monitoring system can be accessed in every cubicle and they are linked to a central console on the staff base so patients can be monitored at all times.

Blood test and X-ray results can also be accessed at the patient’s beside thanks to wireless laptops. The GP area has an 8-bedded acute assessment bay with a glass observation window for patients who need more intensive assessment or treatment. In one of the bays the curtains have been replaced by partitions to improve patient privacy and dignity, and confidentiality.

The EAU is the first area in the Trust to install a Medi365 electronic drug administration system for staff using finger tip recognition. The clinicians punch in a security code, select the drugs they need and the drugs are dispensed. The machine automatically sends a message to pharmacy detailing the drugs dispensed so they can top up the system.

Ambulatory Emergency Care (AEC)

The Ambulatory Emergency Care Unit offers you same day care if you are an ambulatory patients with acute medical conditions. We provide senior led acute medicine assessment and have access to urgent diagnostics, thus avoiding unnecessary inpatient stay. GPs can make a referral by telephoning the AEC nurse. The current admission hours are 8:00 to 19:00, seven days a week. We also receive suitable patients from ED triage room – bypassing ED admission.

Conditions treated in AEC

All ambulatory patients presenting with acute medical conditions can be accepted by AEC. Patients who are critically ill are not reviewed in AEC, but referred to ED. Conditions we commonly manage in AEC are – chest pains with suspected ACS, suspected PE, suspected DVT, suspected infection which can be treated by outpatient antibiotics (oral or IV via OPAT services) , acute headache, deranged LFTs etc.

Visiting times

• 14.00-16.00
• 16.30-20.00

The Respiratory Assessment Unit (RAU) forms part of the Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) pathway where, patients who are unwell with acute and chronic respiratory conditions can be treated and discharged home. Our Specialist Nursing team comprises of staff trained in assessment, order/perform diagnostic tests and prescribe treatment. We have daily support of Doctors and Respiratory Consultants and Registrars.

The unit is open Monday to Friday 8am to 8:30pm with the last referral at 5pm.

Inclusion Criteria

• ​Over the age of 16
• ​Known/suspected respiratory condition – COPD, Asthma, Bronchiectasis, Interstitial Lung Disease, Pleural Disease etc • Suitable for an ambulatory pathway
• Haemodynamically stable
• NEWS 4 or below (not including oxygen therapy)

Exclusion criteria

• Haemodynamically instability – NEWS >4 (not including 02 needs)
• Patients under the age of 18
• Infection prevention control will be taken into consideration on an individual basis
• Not suitable for an ambulatory pathway
• Suspected PE – (Suspected PE’s will remain in AEC as per PE pathway)
• Reduced Mobility – (New onset)
• Confused patients