• For your safety
  • Cardiovascular risk reduction
  • Weight reduction
  • Colon health
• For your wellbeing
• Prostate health checks
• What our patients say
• The patient journey

for your safety 

At The Prostate Centre your safety is our prime concern, and there are a number of ways in which we aim to provide you with optimum conditions for our care of your health and welfare. Apart from the obvious (striving to maintain the cleanest environment, working with only the best-trained, hand-picked staff and using the most modern, proven technology and equipment), we underscore our philosophy in a variety of less evident ways:

Men’s health

We believe passionately that if you come to us with a prostate problem, we should not neglect your general health.  Professor Roger Kirby and his brother Professor Mike Kirby have shared a lifelong determination to raise awareness of men’s health issues and to try to narrow the gap that exists between the male and female average age of death.  Their book “Men’s Health”, now in its third edition, serves as a manual for doctors in urology and other specialties to encourage a wider approach to the patients in their care.

So often, a man who is of an age to have prostate disease – usually middle age and beyond – will also be suffering, whether he knows it or not, from some other disorder that comes with modern living. Ironically, for many men it is their high blood pressure, heart disease, undiagnosed diabetes, stress, excess weight, smoking and lack of exercise that will lead to disaster before their prostate does. That’s why we routinely look out for these things when you are referred to us, and why we run thorough blood tests, perform pre-anaesthetic assessments (including ECG, or heart trace) if you are to have an operation, and try to motivate changes in your lifestyle to help you reverse any undesirable effects on your health.

Of course we offer basic prostate health checks to men who simply want to make sure that all is well in that department. We also offer a more comprehensive “executive” health check, with the focus nevertheless firmly on the prostate.  But there’s a difference between these “men’s health” screens and our wider agenda to ensure your safety when you are a patient of ours.

No amount of testing can rule out conclusively any untoward event in the future. But we do know that, thanks to our approach, many men have been spared the trauma and inconvenience of facing an unexpected major crisis.

Patient safety training

Some years ago, Professor Roger Kirby collaborated with an airline pilot to initiate a “Patient Safety Training” course which was designed to help prevent medical errors. This was based on lessons learned from the aviation industry, and was directed at all healthcare professionals. The course has been used in London and Manchester, and Professor Kirby has lectured and written widely on this subject. As a result, we have a very effective safety culture at the Prostate Centre, and are constantly looking for ways to improve our practice. Although human error can never be completely eradicated, we do believe we are as close as we can be to minimising mistakes.

Regulatory compliance

All our protocols and procedures are performed in accordance with National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines where applicable.  We make sure we keep abreast of changes in policy, and all of our clinicians have been actively involved either in national advisory boards or in drawing up the national guidelines for relevant professional bodies.

We are regulated by the Healthcare Commission and the compliance required of us is equal to that of a hospital.  We passed our initial inspection with flying colours. We aim for the highest standard of cleanliness and keep our equipment regularly serviced, maintained and upgraded. We hold regular multidisciplinary meetings to discuss patient care, and have both planned and ad hoc training programmes to keep staff up-to-date with developments.

Operations and hospital-borne infections

Our surgeons perform their operations in the safest of environments, using the most prestigious private hospitals in the country.  The London Clinic and King Edward VII’s Hospital Sister Agnes are both within a stone’s throw of The Prostate Centre and either we or the hospitals’ resident medical officer are always on hand or contactable in the event of any problems. Both hospitals have well staffed intensive care units, though these are very seldom required by our own patients The KEVII, as it is often known, recently won an award for being the cleanest private hospital in the UK.  Infection rates at both institutions are among the lowest in the country. MRSA should not be a problem at these hospitals and screening is routinely carried out to identify those patients who are carriers, so that measures can be taken to avoid infection of others.