Macmillan Lymphoedema Service

Lymphoedema massage

The Macmillan nurses offer Lymphoedema massage therapy at Southville Clinic.  This is an NHS service and can only be accessed by referral from an NHS health care professional.

 

The service objective
The Lymphoedema Service provides patient centred care, undertaking holistic assessments, addressing physical and psychosocial health needs and individually planning and providing specialist treatments for patients with lymphoedema.

 

The service consists of:

A Clinical Nurse Lead, Lymphoedema Nurse Specialists and an Administrator

 

Treatment centres and clinics

We run three treatment centres at:

  • Marina Healthcare Centre, Portishead (North Somerset)
  • Southville Clinic (Bristol)
  • Willow Surgery (South Gloucestershire). 

All three operate full time Monday-Friday (excl. Bank Holidays).  The team also runs a number of follow up clinics across North Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucester.

 

We aim to:

  • Provide telephone advice during normal office hours, (but this may not necessarily be on the same day as the enquiry).  Voicemail will be available out of office hours.
  • Provide written information to you about accepted risk factors and prevention guidelines.
  • Provide education for you, your carers and relatives to increase your knowledge and understanding of lymphoedema.



Treatment                                                                                                                      There will be patients who no longer need to be seen at regular intervals, but who need to maintain contact with the Lymphoedema Service.  In these circumstances you will be given the necessary information indicating the circumstances in which you should contact the service.  Your GP, referrer and any other healthcare professional necessary to support you will be informed of any treatment you receive. 

 

Treatment may consist of: 

·         Skin care

·         Exercise

·         Simple Lymphatic Drainage (SLD)

·         Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD)

·         Multi-layer Inelastic Lymphoedema Bandaging (MLLB)

·         Kinesio taping

·         Compression hosiery

·         Kinesio taping

·         Flowtron Hydroven Pump (IPC)

 

Home visits

It is expected that the majority of treatments will be undertaken in one of the outpatient clinics run by the service.  Where there is an absolute need to visit the patient at home it will be arranged on a case by case basis.

 

Referrals to other healthcare professionals:

Prior to, during or after treatment, it may be appropriate to make a referral to other healthcare professionals to support you in your lymphoedema management or to treat associated problems.  This will be discussed and agreed with you before any referral is made.

 

Useful links:

Lymphoedema Support Network (UK), www.lymphoedema.org/lsn

 

Referral address and contact details:

The BNSSG Macmillan Lymphoedema Service

The Marina Healthcare Centre

2nd Floor

2 Haven View

Portishead 

North Somerset

BS20 7QA

Tel:  01275 547573

Fax:  01275 840535