Organizing an acute gynaecology service: equipment, setup and a brief review of the likely conditions that are managed in the unit

Gynaecological practice has traditionally been divided into emergency and elective services. Emergency gynaecological services provide care for women who have miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and acute non-pregnancy related symptoms such as pelvic pain. Early Pregnancy Units (EPU) offer an efficient way of organizing services for women experiencing early pregnancy complications. More recently the concept of outpatient treatment by a multidisciplinary team has been expanded to incorporate all emergency gynaecological care. This decreases attendances to the Accident and Emergency unit or the on call “out of hours” gynaecology service. As a result of this, the concept of an Emergency Gynaecology Unit (EGU) was established.