Renal Inpatients is located at Gate 8b, Level 4, Brunel building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol, has 34 beds. 26 beds are in single ensuite rooms.

It has a high dependency area for immediate post transplantation care and for managing severe acute illness and acute kidney injury. The ward will care for you from the time of first admission with an illness, through your treatment and rehabilitation.

There are facilities for haemodialysis in each room. The number of single rooms makes the ward appropriate for individuals with infectious conditions and other illness that particularly requires privacy.

Although we will always try to accommodate people with kidney problems in one of the kidney unit wards this is not always possible. Sometimes your needs for expert nursing may be better met outside the kidney unit, for example if you have an orthopaedic operation. If you do have to be looked after in a bed outside the kidney unit, the doctors from the kidney unit will carefully monitor your condition.

Renal outpatients

In our outpatients clinics, patients meet members of the expert professional team who care for people with kidney problems. The professionals working here include doctors (consultants, registrars, and other doctors), transplant coordinators, specialist nurses, psychologists, dieticians and education team.

Most of our clinics happen at Gate 5, Level 1, Brunel building, Southmead Hospital, BS10 5NB.

Consultants from the Renal Service visit also several other hospitals to provide kidney clinics. These are held at:

• Royal United Hospital, Bath, BA1 3NH – Mondays and Thursdays, Diabetes Centre (A19). Please note that access to the clinic is currently through a separate entrance – you can’t get to the clinic area via the main hospital entrance
• Frome Community Hospital, Enos Way, Frome, BA11 2FH
• Chippenham Community Hospital, Rowden Hill, Chippenham, Wilts SN15 2AJ
• Weston Dialysis Unit, Weston General Hospital, Grange Road, Uphill, Weston-Super-Mare BS23 4TQ
• South Bristol Dialysis Unit, Downton Road, Knowle West, BS4 1WH 

Please note: even if your clinic is in another hospital, you will still need to contact the team at Southmead if you need to cancel or reschedule.

While many of our clinics are general kidney clinics treating a range of kidney issues, we also run specialist clinics for the following situations:

Kidney stones clinic (lead consultant Dr Helen Campbell)

Genetics

Young adult kidney clinic (Lead consultant: Dr Anjali Menon)

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Options for Kidney Care Clinic

Kidney transplant recipient clinic

Vasculitis (lead consultant Dr Saira Risdale)

Kidney disease in pregnancy (lead consultant Dr Alison Armitage)

Lupus (lead consultant Dr Albert Power)

Haemodialysis

Home dialysis

Renal patient education team

Interventional Radiology is a speciality that offers a wide range of minimally invasive image guided procedures ranging from highly complex aneurysm repair to small joint injections. The British Society of Interventional Radiology provides some useful information on Interventional Radiology. 

There are six Interventional Radiology labs in the Brunel building at Southmead Hospital that offer state of the art imaging facilities, providing diagnostics and treatment.

The Interventional Radiology labs are open from 8am - 8pm Monday to Friday with an emergency on-call service providing cover 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

After some procedures it may be necessary to remain in Hospital for a few hours. If this is the case you will be cared for in the Interventional radiology Day Case Unit.

Please feel free to contact the Imaging Contact Centre if you would like to change your appointment time.

Nuclear Medicine is a medical specialty involving the administration of radioactive pharmaceuticals for the diagnosis of disease processes.

It is best at providing information of system function rather than pictorial anatomical images.

Radiopharmaceuticals (radioactive isotopes bound on to different pharmaceuticals) can be administered in a variety of ways by injection, inhaling or ingesting them.

The most common isotope for Nuclear Medicine imaging is Technetium 99m which has a half- life of 6 hours (this refers to the decay in activity which means that every 6 hours there is half as much as we started with) but we do use isotopes that have slightly longer half lives.

These tracers accumulate in the organ of interest where they emit gamma rays, these are then detected by equipment called a gamma camera giving us the information we require to help with diagnosis. The gamma camera resembles a CT scanner and is attached to a computer which gives quantitative and imaging data.

The scans we perform are very varied and they can take from a few minutes to hours or scanning over several days.

www.patient.co.uk provides some useful information on what to expect when attending a Nuclear medicine appointment. 

Nuclear medicine is a specialist service and is only provided in the Brunel building at Southmead Hospital.

If you have received an appointment or have been referred for a scan you are welcome to contact the department and we will explain your procedure for you.

Please feel free to contact the Imaging Contact Centre if you would like to change your appointment time.

It is very important that you let us know if you cannot keep you appointment as we order the radioactive pharmaceuticals especially for you and they can be very expensive. If you do not then attend the isotope is wasted.

The Imaging department provides a number of non-obstetric ultrasound services within North Bristol NHS Trust in both the Hospital and Community setting.

This includes:

• Abdominal
• Pelvic
• Renal
• Testicular
• Musculoskeletal
• Head and Neck examinations

In addition to this we also provide services for the Early Pregnancy Unit based at Southmead Hospital.

A range of Outpatient and GP Ultrasound services are provided at Cossham Hospital, Clevedon Hospital, Yate West Gate Centre and Southmead Hospital.

Acute services and some specialist services are based exclusively in the Brunel building at Southmead Hospital.

Opening hours vary however most Outpatient and GP services are provided 8am – 6pm Monday to Friday with a 7 day service for acute admissions. Some evening appointment times are available for Outpatient and GP appointments.

Please feel free to contact the Imaging Contact Centre if you would like to change your appointment time.

NHS provides some useful information on what to expect when attending an Ultrasound appointment. 

A computerised tomography (CT) scan uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed images of the inside of the body.

CT scans are also sometimes known as CAT scans, which stands for computerised axial tomography. NHS provides some useful information on what to expect when attending for a CT appointment.

 

The Imaging department provides a number of CT services within North Bristol NHS trust in both the Hospital and Community setting.

A range of Outpatient and GP CT services are provided within the Brunel building at Southmead and at Cossham Hospital.

Opening hours vary however most Outpatient and GP services are provided 8am – 8pm Monday to Thursday and 8am – 5pm on Friday.

Please feel free to contact the Imaging Contact Centre if you would like to change your appointment time.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a type of scan that uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body.

An MRI scanner is a large tube that contains powerful magnets. You lie inside the tube during the scan.

 

The results of an MRI scan can be used to help diagnose conditions, plan treatments and assess how effective previous treatment has been. NHS website provides some useful information on what to expect when attending for an MRI appointment. 

The Imaging department provides a number of MRI services within North Bristol NHS trust in both the Hospital and Community setting.

A range of Outpatient and GP MRI services are provided within the Brunel building at Southmead Hospital and at Cossham Hospital.

Opening hours vary however most Outpatient and GP services are provided 8am – 9pm Monday to Thursday and 8am – 8pm on  Friday. We also offer appointments on a Saturday and Sunday. Please feel free to contact the Imaging Contact Centre if you would like to change your appointment time.

X-rays are a type of radiation. They're similar sources of energy to light. However, light has a much lower frequency than X-rays and is absorbed by your skin. X-rays have a higher frequency and pass through the human body.

As X-rays pass through your body, energy particles called photons are absorbed at different rates. This pattern shows up on the X-ray images.

The parts of your body made up of dense material, such as bone, show up as clear white areas on an X-ray image. The softer parts, such as your heart and lungs, show up as darker areas. NHS Choices provides some useful information on what to expect when attending for an X-ray.

The Imaging department provides a number of X-ray services within North Bristol NHS Trust in both the Hospital and Community setting.

If you have an appointment letter from North Bristol NHS Trust, please check in using the self check-in kiosks before proceeding to Gate 18.

GP X-Ray appointment
If your GP has asked you to attend for an X-Ray in most cases they will have made the request electronically and you will not need to bring a request form with you.

From Monday 27 July 2020 you will be required to contact our appointment line to agree a location and time for your X-Ray.

X-Ray Imaging can be provided at:
Cossham Hospital - Monday to Friday 8,15am - 4.30pm
Southmead Hospital, Brunel Building, Gate 18 - Monday to Friday 8.15am - 7.30pm
Yate West Gate Centre - Monday to Friday 8.30am - 7.30pm and Saturday/Sunday 10.30am - 5.30pm
North Somerset Community Hospital, Clevedon - Monday to Friday 9am - 4pm and Saturday/ Sunday 10.30am - 5.30pm

 

The Imaging Department at North Bristol NHS Trust is a very busy department that offers a wide variety of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic investigations.

We receive referrals from the local community, from other hospital teams and other hospitals in the region. The Imaging Department performs 402,000 examinations per year.

Our appointments are in demand and therefore if you are unable to attend your appointment please let us know as soon as possible, as another patient will be able to take your cancelled appointment time.

You can also contact the Imaging Department Contact Centre if you wish to change or wish to discuss your appointment.

To cancel or rearrange your appointment, please telephone us on 0117 414 8989.

The Imaging (X-Ray) Department at North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) provides a large range of diagnostic services on behalf of local GPs and other medical units within the Trust, including:

• General X-ray
• MRI scan
• CT scan
• Ultrasound
• Nuclear Medicine
• Interventional Radiology/Fluoroscopy

Every year we carry out over 402,000 examinations ranging from simple GP requests, via our walk-in service, through to complex diagnoses working with our regional specialties including Neurosciences, Orthopaedic and Renal (kidney).

We have over 250 staff, including consultants, radiographers, nurses, imaging department assistants and administrators, based across Southmead Hospital Bristol, Cossham Hospital, Yate West Gate Centre and Clevedon Hospital.