Dr Foster Health Publishes New Waiting Times Update for Transurethral Resection of Prostate (TURP) Surgery and New TURP ans Prostate Cancer Information Hubs

Dr Foster Health, the hospital comparison and consultant search website, has published a new Waiting Times Update for Transurethral Resection of Prostate (TURP) surgery alongside two new Information Hubs revealing the facts behind TURP Surgery and Prostate Cancer.

The TURP Waiting Times Update can be accessed from Dr Foster Health's homepage, while the TURP and Prostate Cancer Hubs can be accessed from the Medical Dictionary under Surgical Procedures and Medical Conditions, respectively.

As men age, they can develop a condition called Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) which causes the prostate gland to increase in size. The enlarged prostate can narrow or even block the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the outside of the body (urethra).

TURP is the surgical removal of part of the prostate gland and is a fairly common operation, as most men aged over 50 (1) will develop BPH at some time in their lives. BPH is not prostate cancer.

BPH can cause the following symptoms:

* The need to urinate frequently or urgently, even at night
* Difficulty or straining during urination and a feeling the bladder has not been emptied fully
* Weak or intermittent urine flow and urine leakage or dribbling

Dr Foster Health's TURP Waiting Times Update covers all 10 Strategic Health Authorities and uses Hospital Episode Statistics data from 2005/6 to 2008/9 to track NHS Hospital Trust admissions.

Having been diagnosed with BPH, accessing the TURP Waiting Times Update will reveal the wait for the operation and also highlight new developments in surgical and drug treatments for BPH.

The TURP Waiting Times Update can be accessed on the Dr Foster Health homepage, while the TURP and Prostate Cancer Information Hubs can be found in the Medical Dictionary section under Surgical Procedures.

Dr Foster Health publishes monthly a new Waiting Times Update for each of the 50 commonest operations performed on the NHS.

Dr Foster Health's Medical Dictionary, which contains the new Prostate Cancer and TURP hubs, offers detailed and referenced information guides on common medical conditions and surgical procedures.

Notes to editors:

1) Dr Foster Health is the leading innovator in benchmarking public services and communicating information about these services to the public. Dr Foster Health produces authoritative and independent guides to health services in public and private healthcare. Dr Foster Health's aim is not only to inform, but also to act as a catalyst for change.

2) Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is a data warehouse containing details of all admissions to NHS hospitals in England. It includes private patients treated in NHS hospitals, patients who were resident outside of England and care delivered by treatment centres (including those in the independent sector) funded by the NHS. HES also contains details of all NHS outpatient appointments in England.

HES is the data source for a wide range of healthcare analysis for the NHS, Government and many other organisations and individuals. It contains admitted patient care data from 1989 onwards, with more than 12 million new records added each year, and outpatient attendance data from 2003 onwards, with more than 40 million new records added each year.