Gastroenterology & Hepatology

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Gastroenterology and Hepatology

The Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology offers a wide range of services to diagnose and treat conditions affecting the oesophagus, stomach, small, large intestine, liver and pancreas. This includes a busy inpatient service with dedicated teams to assess and manage all admitted patients with issues related to Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Gastroenterology Service Consultants: Drs. Akbar Zulquernain, John O'Grady and Clodagh Murphy
Hepatology Service Consultants: Prof. Orla Crosbie and Drs. Clifford Kiat and Farid Toor

Endoscopy

The Endoscopy Unit in Cork University Hospital is situated above the Emergency Department. The GI unit is a tertiary referral centre for both endoscopy and ERCP. The CUH endoscopy service is accredited by the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

JAG's goal is to guarantee that endoscopy services have the knowledge, tools, and drive required to deliver timely, high-quality, patient-centred care.

Services Provided

The team of gastroenterologists use endoscopic procedures to diagnose and treat disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. These procedures include:

Upper GI endoscopy, including interventional procedures such as endoscopic band ligation and APC
Colonoscopy, including EMR and advanced polypectomy
Advanced IBD assessment and surveillance
Barrett's oesophagus assessment and surveillance
Flexible sigmoidoscopy
Enteroscopy
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)
Endoscopic stent placement.
Nasojejunal (NJ) feeding tube
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG)

Access to Outpatient Services

Patients can be referred via our OPD clinics or other consultants in CUH. We have a direct access endoscopy service. We are happy to take ERCP referrals from other centres in the Cork/Kerry region via e-mail or telephone enquiry.

Hepatology

CUH is the only tertiary referral centre for liver disease outside of Dublin in the Munster area. CUH provides all Hepatology services apart from Liver transplantation which is performed at St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin.

The range of services at CUH includes the review and treatment of patients with abnormal liver function tests, alcohol-related liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, cirrhosis and complications of same (ascites, encephalopathy, hepatoma), cystic fibrosis, fatty liver due to MASLD (metabolic associated steatotic liver disease), hepatitis C, haemochromatosis, liver transplant patients, and pregnant patients with liver issues.

Services

Hepatology Clinics: General, Liver Support Clinic, MASLD clinic (nurse led), Viral hepatitis, Autoimmune and venesection
Fibroscan services to support the above, offered by our CNS and ANP
Liver Transplant Clinic (supervised by Dr Dan Schmidt)

The Hepatology service is also supported by ANP Orla Chambers and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Hepatology Ayobami Ajao

Access to Service

Access is via referral letters from GPs or hospital consultants based in the region. Patients from Munster are often referred to us from SVUH in Dublin for local follow-up. All letters are triaged by the consultant and offered appropriate follow-up.

Hepatitis C Service

CUH is one of 8 designated National hepatitis C units in Ireland, and the only one in the Munster area. All Hepatitis C referrals from this area are investigated and triaged for appropriate anti-viral therapy.

Services

Hepatitis C Clinic (Tuesday morning)
Viral Hepatitis Clinic (Monday afternoon, on a monthly basis)
Our CNS Lorraine O'Connor and Mairead Allenalso offer an outreach service to Cork prison and the Addiction and homeless services. These patients are screened, diagnosed, assessed and treated in the Community if appropriate without having to attend CUH.
This service is also supported by our Hepatitis C Pharmacist, Marih O'Leary.

The Department of Infectious Diseases runs the Hepatitis B service, and the referral pathway is via the Department of Infectious Diseases

Our Hepatitis C nurses are happy to take any enquiries or answer any concerns and can be contacted at 021-4922167.