Specialist Continence Service

The Specialist Continence Service provides information, support and treatment for adults with bladder or bowel problems. It also provides training, education and advice to carers and health professionals.

With good quality assessment and care, bladder and bowel problems can usually be improved or cured. Incontinence does not have to be accepted as inevitable, whatever a person’s age or ability. For those people for whom incontinence cannot be fully resolved, continence problems can be made easier to live with, with the right care and appliances.

The NHS can only provide home-use products for the containment of incontinence following a comprehensive assessment. Pad provision is based on clinical need and according to specific criteria. Treatments to promote continence should always be tried first and may take some months to work.

Our team is based in the community at Knaresborough Road Health Centre, Harrogate. We provide outpatient clinics across Harrogate and Ripon. Patients who are housebound and unable to attend clinics, can be visited in their own homes, by the Community Care Team.

Please contact us for further details about our community clinics:

Tel:  01423 557495

Referral

We accept written referrals to the Specialist Continence Service from GPs and other healthcare professionals. Self-referral is accepted, but please do talk to your GP first about the problems you may be experiencing.

If there is blood or mucus in a patient’s urine or stool, seek the immediate advice of their doctor prior to referral.

Singlepoint of Access cannot accept referrals sent as email messages. These will be returned to sender. Please complete and submit the continence service Referral Form.

Referrals should be sent as email attachments to: [email protected]

Self-referral is accepted, but please do talk to your GP first about the problems you may be experiencing.

Education

We have an annual programme of education for healthcare staff. This is open to HDFT staff and those from private nursing and residential homes. These include continence awareness days, basic catheter training, catheter updates, bladder scanning and bowel care. These educational programmes may be booked through Learning & Development at: [email protected].

Key staff

  • Specialist Continence Practitioner (Specialist Physiotherapist/Clinical Lead): Rachel Kerr
  • Continence Practitioner (Specialist Nurse): Joanne Burnside
  • Continence Practitioner (Specialist Nurse): Karen Banks

Useful Links

Bladder and Bowel UK   – A charity that provides information and advice for all adults, children and young people with bladder and bowel issues and for their families and carers, as well as the professionals who support them:

https://www.bbuk.org.uk/

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/urinary-incontinence/

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/constipation/

Patient Leaflets