Farewell Phil and welcome Majed
September 2012. Mr Phil Dundee has now left the department having worked here for one year as a locum consultant. He has returned to Melbourne to take up a permanent consultant position at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and we wish him well.
Also, we are pleased that Mr Majjed Shabbir has joined the consultant staff in the urology department. He has subspecialist skills in andrology and will work alongside Mr Paul Hegarty to develop this service.
New lithotripter install
August 2012. The stone unit are very pleased to have a brand new state of the art lithotripter installed to replace their old machine. This breaks kidney stones using ultrasound shockwaves and will allow the stone unit to continue to offer all the treatment options of kidney stones within the unit.
New editor of British Journal of Urology
August 2012. Prokar Dasgupta is new editor of British Journal of Urology International (BJUI).
Prokar has been appointed as the next editor of this prestigious international journal. He will officially take over from January 2013 but has assumed editorial control of articles from 1st August.
Best paper award
June 2012. The department had a high profile at the annual British Association Annual Conference (BAUS) with multiple podium and poster presentations. Kathie Wong was awarded 'Best Paper' for her work in the stone unit on the genetics of cystinuria stones.
New clinical lead for urology
February 2012. Mr Popert has stepped down as lead clinician for urology after 3 years in the role. He is replaced by Mr Jonathan Glass|. Declan Cahill| takes over as cancer lead for urology.
Maternity leave changes to the team
January 2012. Both Kay Thomas and Anna Ashfield are now on maternity leave. Kay’s absence is being covered by experienced urologist Mr Ralph Beard, who has recently retired from Worthing Hospital. He previously worked in our unit between 1984 and 2001 and we welcome him back to our department.
Movember
November 2011. 5 members of the urology team recently took part in the Movember Cancer Awareness month to raise money and awareness for mens health issues. Ben Challacombe, Paul Hegarty, Phil Dundee, Arun Sahai and Sashi Kommu all grew moustaches for the month of November. They raised over £1000. Congratulations! You can read more about it at Movember UK|.
We now offer robotic partial nephrectomy
September 2011. In a recent expansion of our robotic surgery programme using the da Vinci robot, we are now able to offer robotically-assisted partial nephrectomy for small kidney tumours.
In a collaboration between the urology departments at Guy's and King's College Hospital, Mr Ben Challacombe, Mr Gordon Kooiman, and Mr Timothy O'Brien have combined their robotic, laparoscopic, and open surgical skills to launch this exciting new treatment for small kidney tumours.
The robotic approach has the potential advantages of increased precision and control with easier suturing compared to the standard laparoscopic (keyhole) approach and is suitable for many patients with localised kidney cancer.
Staff speakers at the Australasian Prostate Cancer Conference
August 2011. Declan Cahill|, Ben Challacombe| and Jeanette Kinsella were invited speakers at the recent Australasian Prostate Cancer Conference in Melbourne. This prestigious annual event attracts the top experts in prostate cancer from around the world. The meeting was very successful and the visit of our team will hopefully lead to closer collaboration of the two departments in the future.
New locum consultant
August 2011. Mr Phil Dundee has been appointed as locum consultant to the department and will take up his position in September. Phil trained in Australia and brings a broad experience with him. He has recently completed a fellowship in prostate cancer surgery in Guildford.
Changes to our consultants
May 2011. Mr Nick Hegarty left the department this month after 5 years of service as a consultant. He has moved back to his home country of Ireland to take up a post in Dublin. We wish him well. At the same time Mr Matthew Bultitude| has taken up a full time position as consultant within the department. He has a special interest in stone disease and joins Mr Jonathan Glass| and Miss Kay Thomas| on the stone unit.
European Association of Urology Annual Meeting in Vienna
March 2011. Our department had a high profile at the meeting. Netty Kinsella (right) was awarded best presentation at the associated nurses meeting (EAUN). The pioneering research of Tim O’Brien| and the bladder cancer team was recognised with 2nd place for best overall presentation at the main meeting for their work with Blue Light Cystoscopy in diagnosing and treating bladder cancer. Other research in the department was well received with Caroline Pardy and Kathie Wong both winning the prize for best posters in their sessions with work on cystinuria and blue light flexible cystoscopy respectively. Congratulations to all.
Prostate cancer awareness month
March 2011. March is prostate cancer awareness month. For more information or to get involved, please visit the Prostate Cancer Charity's website|.
New robotic system
January 2011. The department took delivery of a new surgical robotic system. The Da Vinci Si HD (Dual Console) is the very latest model and features 4 robotic arms (our previous robot only had 3), high definition images and a dual operating console (previous models only had 1). This allows 2 surgeons to operate simultaneously and when used for training the control of instruments can be easily transferred between the 2 consoles. This is currently only the second of these new robots in the country and will continue to allow state of the art robotic surgery with unrivalled training of our surgical trainees. This system should allow us to deliver the highest quality robotic surgery to our patients with over 300 cases anticipated in 2011 in the treatment of prostate, bladder and kidney cancers.
Promotion for Netty Kinsella
December 2010. Netty Kinsella was promoted from nurse specialist to advanced nurse practitioner. This role will improve the experience of men on active surveillance for prostate cancer and recognises the work she was doing specifically with performing transperineal and transrectal prostate biopsies. Congratulations.