Good Practice in Action

Endometrial Biopsy

Fair access to Health Services
Making sure the population of Orkney has fair access to health services is one of the challenges of our remote location. NHS Orkney is committed to improving access to and from the islands together with making the miles matter less for people travelling to Aberdeen.

Women in the North Isles of Orkney can now arrange to access a female health professional for cytology services

NHS Orkney has funded the purchase of equipment so that participating GPs can offer this procedure in their surgeries

Orkney is fortunate to have a GP led primary care service. Many of our GPs suggest improvements to the service that benefit patients. Some GP surgeries now offer endometrial biopsies in the surgery. This speeds up the diagnostic process and treatment options for women. As a result some patients no longer have to wait for a gynaecologist to visit the hospital to get certain investigations.

Offering these gynaecological investigations in the surgery is great news for patients who can have this procedure done in a familiar setting with a GP they know. It has also made more effective use of precious consultant clinic time.

Preliminary evaluation shows that women prefer to have this procedure in the familiar environment of the local surgery.