Whipps Cross University Hospital

What we do

We provide a range of clinics in a number of specialties including:

• Ear, Nose and Throat
• Endocrinology
• Dermatology
• Gastroenterology
• Geriatric Medicine
• Gynaecology
• Haematology
• Nephrology - Renal medicine
• Neurology
• Oral and Maxillofacial surgery
• Orthopaedics
• Paediatrics
• Pain Management
• Rheumatology
• Surgery - Breast
• Surgery - General
• Surgery - Vascular
• Urology

Other outpatient specialties are provided in dedicated units on site, for example:

• Cardiology - outpatients provided in the Byron Integrated Cardiology Unit
• Diabetes - outpatients provided in the Gillian Hanson Diabetic Unit
• Ophthalmology - outpatients provided in the Eye Treatment Centre
• Respiratory Medicine - outpatients provided in the Chest Clinic

Most Outpatient appointments take place in the Outpatient department at Whipps Cross, which is split between areas 1 to 5 and A and B.

However, some appointments may take place off site at our medical centres, which are managed by hospital staff, these are:

• Forest Medical Centre
• Silverthorn Medical Centre

There is a separate Children’s Outpatients, for paediatric appointments. If it is not possible to book children into this department they are seen at the beginning or end of normal clinics.

Treatment in 18 weeks
The NHS is committed to making sure your treatment is started within 18 weeks, once you have be referred by your GP

This means that if you need treatment or an operation you will be admitted to hospital within 18 weeks. If your treatment can be given in an outpatient clinic it will also be started within that time.

Of course, if your treatment is needed urgently, it will be started much more quickly.

We can only keep this promise with your help - to be seen within 18 weeks you need to make sure you are available for appointments, tests and treatments.

Where possible you will be given the opportunity to agree the date and time of your visits to make it easier for you to attend.

However if you are unable to attend your appointment, please tell us as soon as possible (see contact numbers below), so we can offer the appointment to another patient.

If you need an operation or treatment, you will need to be fit and well enough to have that done within 18 weeks of your referral. If this is likely, your GP should have already assessed your general fitness, which usually includes a check of your weight and blood pressure.

If you are not well enough for surgery, you will be returned back to the care of your GP until you are fit enough to have your operation.

Please agree support from your relatives and friends for your post-operative care so you can return to your home as soon as possible.

We encourage patients to be involved in their care, please ask our hospital staff looking after you, about the next steps towards your treatment when you go for tests or your appointments.

Staff in Outpatients
The outpatient department is lead by the Outpatient Management Team. All staff work closely with staff in Medical Records and clerical staff in the Call Centre and Clinic Receptionists.

There are 4 main nursing teams; Medical, Surgical, Head & Neck and Orthopaedic led by a Nurse Manager and each team has a Sister as team leader, supported by trained nurses and health care assistants.

Clinic clerks are available to book you in for your appointment and for help and information in each area. These members of staff can be identified by their red uniforms.

The wider team of staff include:

• Medical Secretaries
• X-Ray staff
• Porters
• London Ambulance team
• Infection Control team
• Pathology
• Information Technology staff

How to contact us

Where to find us

How to find us

For more information on how to find locations at Whipps Cross or how to get the hospital please look under our 'Where to find us section'.

• Click here to view location map of the hospital.
• Click here to view how to get here.
  
• Or to find the other sites, please click on this link and enter the relevant postcode.

Opening times

How to get treatment

To get an appointment in the Outpatients department you need to be referred by your GP (General Practitioner).

New appointments come through the Appointment Centre and patients receive a letter or telephone call notifying them of their appointment.

For a follow-up appointments, patients need to contact the Call Centre.

If you do not attend your first appointment you may be referred back to the care of your GP. If you cancel or reschedule an agreed appointment or your treatment, you may also be discharged back to the care of your GP.

In these circumstances you may be required to start your 18 week wait again.

Further information

If your consultant decides during your appointment, that for medical reasons, you need to see another consultant you may be referred back to your GP, for them to book you in for another appointment with another consultant.

This is due to protocol by the local Primary Care Trust’s and helps patients have more choice.

Interpreting services
Are available and should be booked for first appointmentsby your GP. To check an interpreter has been booked you can contact the service by telephoning: 0845 310 9900.

Interpreters for follow-up appointments need to be requested at the booking of your follow-up appointment in the Outpatient clinic.

Ambulance transport
Patients are not automatically entitled to be booked for ambulance transport to and from hospital.

Ambulances will only be provided for those with a true medical need, otherwise patients need to make their own arrangements to attend appointments by local transport, taxi or car.

There are strict criteria on providing ambulance transport; to qualify you must satisfy at least one of the following criteria:

• The patient is unable to walk unaided and requires a carrying chair and two persons to lift the chair.
• The patient must travel in their own wheelchair and cannot use alternative modes of travel, for example: low floor buses, cabs.
• The patient is currently evaluated as being medically unable to travel by private car or taxi or public bus.
• The patient requires a qualified medical crew with a fully equipped ambulance during transportation.
• The patient is immobile and needs to travel via a stretcher.
• A psychiatric patient that is fully mobile but needs exclusive use of a vehicle.
• The patient is terminally ill and needs exclusive use of an ambulance; this vehicle is only to be used with authorisation of Doctor or Consultant.

You are not entitled to have an escort, unless it is a nurse escort or if they meet the escort criteria.

Escorts (relatives/ friends/ carers) travelling with patients occupy seats which could be used for other patients.

Usually, only the following categories of patients are entitled to have an escort travelling with them:

• Patients under 16 years of age.
• If the patient’s condition is such they require the constant attention of an escort throughout the journey.
• The patient has severe communication difficulties, for example profound sight or hearing impairment, or has speech or language difficulties and therefore cannot travel alone.
• The patient suffers from a mental illness.

If you meet the criteria for ambulance transport you will need to liaise with you GP who will book an ambulance for your first appointment. 

Transport for follow up appointments will be made following assessment by the clinic nurse in the department. 

To check an ambulance has been booked for you can telephone: 020 8535 6886. 

If your appointment is cancelled please ring the ambulance department on the number above to cancel the ambulance.

For appointment enquires email: Appointments.centre@whippsx.nhs.uk