Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are lifelong illnesses affecting the intestines. While we cannot cure them, medical and surgical treatments can keep them controlled and give our patients a good quality of life. We believe in close teamwork between all members of the IBD team and regularly discuss the best options in a multidiscliplinary team setting.
The national patient organisation  UK provides support and excellent patient information. On these pages we aim to give you an overview over the treatments we offer.
Outpatient services
Our regular IBD clinics are held at St James’s University Hospital, where we see most of our patients. A number of patients get seen by gastroenterologists and surgeons in other clinics and we also offer for phone clinics for stable patients. If you are interested in phone clinic follow-up, please let us know when you next attend an appointment.
Inpatient services
Inpatients are cared for on our dedicated gastroenterology wards J91 and J92 at St James’s University Hospital. Patients requiring surgical interventions will be cared for in the surgical department at St James’s University Hospital.
The IBD clinics
What Happens in Clinic?
When you attend the clinic the doctors or nurses will discuss your condition, the results of any investigations such as radiology (eg CT or MRI scans) or endoscopy tests and treatment options.
The frequency of your follow up appointments will vary depending on whether you are well (in remission) or experiencing problems (a flare). Because of the large number of patients in Ä¢¹½tvÊÓƵ and the fact that many patients will experience long periods of remission, out-patient clinic appointments may be infrequent. However it is important that patients are clear on what symptoms constitute a flare, how to manage it and how to get a timely clinic appointment should a flare occur.
What is the role of the IBD Nurse Specialist?
The key role of the nurse specialist is to support patients with a diagnosis of IBD. This is done through the provision of verbal and written information to enable you and your family to find out more about the condition. They will make themselves available in the specialist IBD clinic to discuss changes in drug therapies, the side effects and benefits of these therapies and the monitoring arrangements required for them. They will assist you to gain access to the service and will liaise with the clinicians to enable you to make an informed decision about your treatment.
With your consent referrals will be made to other members of the team as appropriate such as a dietitian, surgeon or psychologist.
If you are admitted to hospital the nurse specialist will aim to visit you and help coordinate the care you receive.
They may liaise with your GP via clinic letters and phone calls to keep them up to date with your current therapies and any drug monitoring we may need them to do as part of the shared care guidelines.
The IBD helpline:
We have established a helpline telephone number (0113 206 8679) for patients to ring with concerns about their condition.
This helpline number can be used if you feel you may be having a flare. You may be asked to leave a message so that we can return your call. When ringing the IBD helpline please give your name and telephone number and the nature of your query. We will endeavour to get back to you within 24 hours or on the next working day. It is not a substitute for the emergency services. You can also contact by email [email protected].
If you want to contact us about an administrative issue (re-booking clinic appointments, chasing scans or endoscopy) please use email [email protected].
Telephone clinics
In addition to the normal outpatient clinics our IBD nurse specialists run some formal scheduled telephone clinics. These are to ensure that patients have a regular follow up but that patients who are well do not always have to attend the hospital for their review. Please ask if you would like further information on this service.