Health

NORTHWOOD: Eight doctors from BMI Bishops Wood Hospital are mentioned in Tatler magazine's guide to Britain's best doctors.

The guide recognises the top 250 medics as chosen by a panel of respected GPs who were asked who they would choose to treat their own families.

Executive director of the private hospital in Rickmansworth Road, Fraser Dawson said: "Having so many consultants in the guide is a great honour."

NEIGHBOURS are fighting plans to open a late-night pharmacy at Northwood Health Centre.

The business could be required to provide a needle exchange for heroin addicts, which opponents fear could lead to anti-social behaviour.

MOUNT Vernon Cancer Centre needs more volunteers.

NHS BOSSES may not hold a full consultation over plans to relocate a hospital ward.

The Northwood and Pinner Community Unit, which provides intermediate care for patients requiring rehabilitation and respite beds for patients whose carers are away, could be moved from Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood to the Woodlands Centre, opposite Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge, by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL).

The switch, which could happen as early as April next year, is not a removal of services and therefore a full-blown consultation involving roadshows and formal documents is not needed, Hillingdon Council's external services scrutiny committee was told at a meeting.

THERE is 'an excellent chance' a community hospital will be reopened as a health centre, according to campaigners fighting to save the site.

Northwood and Pinner Community Hospital, in Pinner Road, closed in 2008. Earlier this year the Gazette revealed that plans were being hatched to sell the empty building, which was built as a war memorial in the 1920s.

But following a meeting with a consultant brought in to look at the site, campaigners are beginning to believe it will be saved.

SKIN abnormalities will be examined for free by a specialist at BMI Bishops Wood Hospital in Rickmansworth Road.

Neil Toft, a consultant plastic surgeon, is offering the free 15-minute consultation in a bid to raise awareness around the issues of skin cancer prevention during the summer months.

He warned: "It is vitally important people seek medical advice for any concerns they might have about possible sun damage or skin abnormalities."

To book a consultation call the hospital on 0808 101 0344.

TALKS are underway in Northwood in a bid to find a way to save the site of a disused hospital building.

There are now hopes that a viable alternative use can be found for the site of Northwood and Pinner Community Hospital in Pinner Road - to save it from threat of being sold.

AN MP has warned the sale of a community hospital will 'unleash hell'.

Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner MP Nick Hurd spoke out as the backlash began against NHS Hillingdon's plans to sell Northwood and Pinner Community Hospital in Pinner Road.

The PCT has included disposal of the site in its budget report, giving a deadline of September.

MEN are being offered a free prostate cancer test by BMI Bishops Wood Hospital in Northwood, to mark prostate cancer awareness month.

All they need do is book an appointment by calling the hospital on 0800 096 2254.

Screening involves giving a blood test and includes an examination and explanation of the results.

Freddie Banks, a consultant urological surgeon at the hospital in Rickmansworth Road said: "Every day I see the effect prostate cancer can have on men and their families.

"Diagnosing the disease early is crucial in improving a patient's chances for survival."

PATIENTS who think they may have been fitted with controversial PIP breast implants following surgery at Northwood's Bishops Wood Hospital should get in touch with their surgeon, health bosses are warning.

The implants, made by now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, were pulled from the market last year in countries around Europe and South America amid fears they could rupture and leak silicone into the body.

French authorities have found a rupture rate of five per cent in the implants and recommended they be removed.

But the British Government has said it has found no evidence to suggest that removing them would be justified.