Center of Excellence: The Leeds Teaching Hospitals
City: Leeds, UK
Director: Mr. Ian Eardley
Visit dates: 03/11-10/11/2013
Trainees: Dimitriadis Charalambos (Komotini)
Christodoulou Michael (Athens)
What the Trainees said
Description & Evaluation of the Center
By participating in Urotour 2013, I had the opportunity to visit the Urology Clinic of St James Hospital in Leeds, UK, for one week. It is considered to be the largest training hospital in Europe with a capacity of 1.500 beds. It is a worldwide Reference Center for kidney, liver and bone marrow transplantations, while the Oncology Institute provides the highest level healthcare services. The Hospital is also renowned for its specialized geriatric departments.
The Paul Sykes Urology Center is named after one of the richest men in Great Britain. Paul Sykes donated 1,5 million pounds when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and treated in the specific Department 13 years ago.
The Urology Department is staffed by at least 10 Urology Specialists and quite a large number of Residents, and is widely recognized for their reconstructive and endourological procedures performed by surgeons Eardley (Director), Joyce, Cartledge και Prescott, who are among the most distinguished Urologists worldwide. There are at least two operating theaters working on a daily basis (sometimes even three), with surgical procedures covering the entire spectrum of urological diseases, while three times a week there are oncology and lithiasis multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings. More specifically, Mondays are scheduled for the lithiasis MDT (multidisciplinary team) meeting, Tuesdays for the bladder cancer MDT and Fridays for the prostate and renal cancer MDT. In oncological cases, there is close collaboration of Urologists, Radiologists, Pathologists, Oncologists, Palliative Care Physicians and Nursing staff.
During our stay in Leeds, we had the opportunity to attend all surgical procedures. I was highly impressed with the surgical excellence of Dr Eardley in reconstructive operations and Dr Prescott in robotic prostatectomies, while I was amazed watching Dr Cartledge performing three laparoscopic nephrectomies and one partial nephrectomy within only three surgical hours.
As a Reference Center of the County of Yorkshire, the specific hospital also receives a great number of outpatients daily -with an outstanding rate of outpatient urological cases!
All operating theaters and premises of the Clinic are perfectly equipped with the most modern instruments and devices, while there is remarkably easy access to an optimally organized patient data base.
Lastly, I would like to emphasize that all staff members treated us as real members of the Clinic, and were willing to resolve any potential question or concern we might potentially have and discuss with us every single parameter related to their surgical techniques.
I believe that the selection of the specific hospital was the best possible for us, as it gave us the opportunity to get acquainted with the organizational structure and daily operation of an International Urology Center of Excellence and meet some of the most distinguished Urologists worldwide.
Description & Evaluation of the Center
I was selected for Urotour 2013 to visit St James Hospital in Leeds of the United Kingdom from 3.11 to 10.11.2013. This specific hospital is considered to be the “Yorkshire Flagship”, the largest University hospital in Europe, as well as a worldwide famous Center of Transplantation, Oncology and Geriatrics. It is a prestigious high technology center with regard to top-quality healthcare, teaching and research services. The building facility network constitutes a landmark visible from all over the city. Headed by Ian Eardley, eminent Urologist Specialists (Joyce, Prescott, Cartledge) and many Residents of various nationalities, the Paul Sykes Urology Center covers the overall spectrum of Urology, mainly specializing in fields of Reconstructive Urology (Eardley), Endourology (Joyce) and Subfertility.
The outpatient clinics work on a daily basis with 4 physicians serving the County of Yorkshire, while the Hospital operates like a private center with perfect economic-technical organization, modern equipment and an outstanding patient data base. All the above combined with two –or sometimes even three- surgeries taking place every day, covering different urological fields. It was really worth watching Dr Prescott performing radical prostatectomies in the Da Vinci surgical robotic system -breaking time records one after the other!- while next door Dr Cartledge was performing one partial and three total laparoscopic nephrectomies within minimally short time! And all this under the close supervision of the incredible Dr Eardley and Joyce ‘prelude’ !
Also remarkable and constructive are the MDT (multidisciplinary team) meetings for lithiasis, bladder, prostate and renal cancer, where a great number of Specialist Urologists discuss different patient cases in order to reach a consensus in decision-making (!!!!!!).
Lastly, I would like to point out the particularly pleasant climate in all Urology departments and the warmth with which we were welcomed and integrated into the whole group.
St James Hospital is the largest international University hospital in Europe and a worldwide famous transplantation center, visible from all over the city due to the huge building network providing top class healthcare services.
Directed by Ian Eardley and staffed with the exceptional surgeons Joyce , Cartledge and Prescott, the Urology Clinic is well-known worldwide for its reconstructive and endourological surgical procedures, as well as treatments related to subfertility and reproduction.
There is no doubt that this specific Center of Excellence has been a most outstanding choice!
