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St Mark's Hospital Foundation is a charitable arm of St Marks Hospital Harrow, the UK's only specialist hospital for colorectal disease.
About St Mark's
St. Mark's Hospital is a national and international referral centre for intestinal and colorectal disorders.
As well as clinical services covering all aspects of colorectal disease and intestinal failure, it has many research interests and a very active programme of teaching and education.
Latest News
St Mark's Hospital & Academic Institute Lecture Course
Eighth Annual International Congress
Frontiers in Intestinal and Colorectal Disease 2010
Course date: 30th November - 3rd December 2010
Course venue: St Mark's Hospital, Harrow, London
Topics to include among many others:
- Cutting edge symposia
- Full exhibition and learning centre
- Breakfast sessions
The St Mark's Congress runs over 4 days with symposia covering many of the most important topics on intestinal and colorectal disease. The first day is medically orientated with symposia on IBD and Hot Topics in Gastroenterology and an afternoon of Live Endoscopy. On Wednesday the focus is on Cancer, the Dilemmas and the Consequences. Thursday is the "Anal" day and includes symposia on Plastic Surgery around the Anus and Gynaecological Proctology. Colorectal Emergency Care is the topic covered on Friday. In addition, there will be a number of Consultant Corners and Case Studies throughout.
As our Visiting Professors we are delighted to have Professor Jonathan Rhodes (UK) giving a key note speech on the "Aetiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease" and Professor James Church (USA) giving us an insight into Colorectal Cancer Screening in North America.
Breakfast sessions, covering a wide variety of topics will be held. These are informal sessions, with a maximum number of 15 participants.
As the meeting is limited to 200, there is ample opportunity to meet the experts and put your questions to them.
Registration is available on a daily basis and discounts are available for early booking. Members of the Academic Institute are at hand to help with any queries and to assist you with finding accommodation.
Click here for the provisional programme.
For further information contact St Mark's Academic Institute.
St Mark's in the news
Following the publication of "Once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy screening in prevention of colorectal cancer: a multicentre randomised controlled trial" (Atkin et al) in the Lancet last week, St Mark's Consultant Nurse Maggie Vance was interviewed by Sky News and Channel 4. You can watch the Sky News story using this link.
New Consultant Staff
We are pleased to welcome Dr Ayesha Akbar to our consultant staff. Her clinical interests include general gastroenterology with a focus in inflammatory bowel disease. She also has an interest in abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome, especially in the overlap cases with inflammatory bowel disease, and sits on the British Society of Gastroenterology Neurogastroenterology committee. She is involved in service development including setting up a community gastroenterology service with the local PCT and has an interest in patient care and satisfaction.
Ayesha is actively involved in education, teaching and research. Further information can be found on the consultant page.
National training programme in Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery
St. Mark's Hospital is offering consultant surgeons the opportunity to train in Laparoscopic Colorectal surgery under the guidance of Mr Robin Kennedy.
The national training programme is being rolled out as an initiative under the leadership of Professor Mike Richards, the Department of Health's Cancer Action Team.
The training will enable the qualified consultant surgeons to develop a similar process within their own hospital.
For further information, please contact St. Mark's Hospital's National Training Programme Co-ordinator, Astra Tertullien on 020 8235 4108.
St. Mark's official opening of laparoscopic theatre
On 17th November 2008, TV presenter Lynn Faulds-Wood, founder of Lynn's Bowel Cancer Campaign, and TV broadcaster John Stapleton officially opened the newly built laparoscopic theatre.
The theatre combines the latest high-tech equipment and high definition imaging, allowing surgeons to carry out complex surgery by making only small incisions. Also offering not only less invasive surgery but faster recovery times for patients.
St Mark's is one of only a few hospitals in London to use keyhole surgery for advanced complex procedures such as removal of the bowel. The new theatre will also benefit other patients with urological and gynaecological problems.
Robin Kennedy, Consultant Surgeon at St Mark's, gave a presentation, which included a live demonstration of keyhole surgery, transmitted in high definition from the new theatre.
Click here for the Daily Mail article - Laparoscopic Bowel Surgery: St Mark's consultant surgeon, Mr Robin Kennedy, features in Daily Mail's Me and My Operation about one woman's life-saving laparoscopic bowel surgery.
State of the art theatre to cut recovery time for patients in half
Patients at St Mark's Hospital are benefitting from the most advanced surgery in the UK, thanks to a new £500,000 state-of-the-art theatre.
The laparoscopic theatre, one of only a few in the country, combines the latest high tech equipment and high definition imaging, allowing surgeons to carry out complex surgery by making only small incisions.
Equipment in the theatre is suspended from the ceiling by mechanical arms so that lighting and camera angles can be controlled by computers at the simple touch of a button.
St Mark's is one of only a few hospitals in London to use keyhole surgery for advanced complex procedures such as removal of the bowel. But the new theatre will also benefit other patients with urological and gynaecological problems.
Laparoscopic or ‘keyhole' surgery is a technique whereby cameras are inserted into the body so the surgeon can watch what he is doing on a monitor. It means that only a small cut needs to be made which considerably improves the outcome for patients. It reduces the risk of infection, the length of time they need to stay in hospital and shortens recovery.
Surgeon Mr Robin Kennedy explained: "As one of only 16 hospitals to become a national training centre for laparoscopic colorectal surgery we will be using this theatre to train surgeons of the future. The new system also creates high definition images which are essential for the teaching we do both in the UK and worldwide.
"This theatre is purpose built for the keyhole surgery techniques we now use to remove the bowel. Combined with our enhanced recovery programme we are able to reduce the time in hospital after major bowel surgery. In the past people used to have to stay 10 or more days and take at least two to four months to recover fully. Now they stay four days and look fully recovered after two to four weeks."
The theatre will treat 1,000 patients a year and opened in June.
(For more information contact the press office on 020 8869 2421/3552)
Daily Mail - Laparoscopic Bowel Surgery
St Mark's consultant surgeon, Mr Robin Kennedy, features in Daily Mail's Me and My Operation about one woman's life-saving laparoscopic bowel surgery.
St Mark's Hospital in Harrow has been recognised as a Centre of Excellence by the World Organisation of Digestive Endoscopy (Organisation Mondiale d'Endoscopie Digestive), OMED.
The hospital, run by The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, is a national and internationally renowned referral centre for intestinal and colorectal disorders and a national centre for endoscopy training. It is the only hospital in the UK and one of 14 hospitals worldwide to become an OMED centre of excellence.
Dr Brian Saunders, director of the Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy at St Mark's said:
"To be singled out in such a way is a major honour for St Mark's and confirms our place as a world leader in clinical care and research for diseases of the bowel. This is good news for patients as we continue to be at the cutting edge of new treatments. Our mission is to prevent bowel cancer and treat pre-cancer with the most advanced minimally invasive endoscopic techniques."
OMED President Anthony Axon said:
"OMED would like to recognise an elite group of endoscopic centres that have established an outstanding reputation for delivering international education in the field of digestive endoscopy. Membership is limited to centres with an outstanding track record. "
Last year St Mark's Hospital was chosen as London's first bowel cancer screening centre, serving more than a million people locally. It also provides follow-up care for people who have had an abnormal result.
You can find out more about the Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy by visiting www.wolfsonendoscopy.org.uk
BBC Radio 4 Programme: Case Notes on IBS
Study Volunteers Needed
We are seeking people suffering from IBS to study the relationship between brain activity and gut sensation