St Mark’s Endoscopy Locations
St Mark’s Endoscopy is at St Mark’s The National Bowel Hospital at Central Middlesex. Our staff also work cross-site at Northwick Park and Ealing Hospitals. Please check your patient letter for where to attend. More information on how to travel to the hospitals can be found here.
St Mark’s The National Bowel Hospital at Central Middlesex: St Mark’s Endoscopy is delivered in two areas: ACAD and BCAD. If your patient letter says ACAD, enter the hospital main entrance and walk down the long corridor to the far end then turn right. On the next corridor you can reach endoscopy reception by taking the glass stairs to the first floor or by using the lift nearby. If your patient letter says BCAD, enter the hospital’s main entrance, then take the first corridor to your right opposite the main hospital reception.
St Mark’s at Northwick Park: St Mark’s Endoscopy can be reached via the main Northwick Park Entrance and the St Mark’s Hospital Entrance (which is the nearer of the two). If you arrive via the Northwick Park entrance (Level 4), join the main corridor next to the shops and restaurant and continue down until you reach the Link Corridor (the glass corridor with art), turning left. Continue until you reach the lifts and stairs, and take either down one floor to Level 3. Here you will find both Endoscopy Reception and Bowel Cancer Screening Reception, just next to the St Mark’s Tea Bar. If you enter via the St Mark’s Entrance, follow the corridor through the double doors and you will find yourself immediately outside the St Mark’s Tea bar, and the two receptions are just after that.
St Mark’s at Ealing Hospital: There are two entrances to Ealing Hospital. Please follow the signs to Endoscopy. We will be shortly be providing a video walk-through and photos to the Endoscopy Department to help make your journey as simple as possible.
Contact
St Mark’s The National Bowel Hospital, Central Middlesex
St Mark’s Endoscopy general enquiries:
Tel: 020 8963 8816
St Mark’s at Northwick Park
St Mark’s Endoscopy working hours
Tel: 020 8235 4130
St Mark’s Endoscopy out-of-hours
Tel: 020 8235 4131
St Mark’s at Ealing
St Mark’s Endoscopy
Tel: 020 8967 5617
Description of Service
St Mark’s Endoscopy is world renowned, being the only unit in the UK to achieve international recognition as a centre of excellence for endoscopy research and training. It was also the first unit in London to be accredited as a Bowel Cancer Screening centre in 2006 and is currently one of only six pilot sites in the UK for the Bowel Scope Screening programme, delivering the national bowel cancer screening programmes to the local population. The Unit has also developed regional and national referral services for polypectomy, video capsule endoscopy and double-balloon enteroscopy, and provides nationally accredited courses for the teaching and training of endoscopists.
Our main hub is at St Mark’s Hospital at Central Middlesex, where we have a brand new building fitted out with all the latest technology. The department is in two areas, Unit A and Unit B. We have a satellite Endoscopy Unit at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, where we have six procedure rooms with state-of-the-art equipment, providing endoscopy services for both St Mark’s and Northwick Park Hospital. Around 18,000 endoscopies are performed per year. A full range of therapeutic procedures are performed at the Hospital, and cutting edge instruments and accessories combined with specialist endoscopy doctors and nurses allow us to ‘reach the parts other doctors cannot reach’ – comfortably and safely. We pride ourselves in making things easy for our patients, whether unwell or visiting for ‘well patient’ screening.
If you are preparing to visit us, or just wish to learn more about endoscopy, please browse and use all the information provided here:
What is Endoscopy?
An endoscopic procedure allows the doctor or nurse to visually inspect your gastrointestinal tract using a video camera attached to the end of a long thin flexible tube. Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (also known as OGD or Gastroscopy) includes examination of the oesophagus (food pipe or gullet), stomach and duodenum (the first part of the small bowel). Lower Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy) is an examination of the colon (large bowel). We are also able to visualise the entire small bowel using either an easily swallowed pill-sized camera (video capsule endoscopy) or specialist endoscopic equipment designed to navigate the small bowel (double-balloon enteroscopy).
Click on the links below to learn more about the different types of endoscopic procedures:
- Colonoscopy
- Flexible Sigmoidoscopy
- Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (OGD)
- Double Balloon Enteroscopy (DBE)
- Video Capsule Endoscopy (VCE)
- Polypectomy
- Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP)
St Mark’s Endoscopy has information sheets on the dietary changes and bowel preparation you will need to take in the days before your procedure.
The National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme
Bowel cancer (also known as colorectal cancer) is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK, with 41,581 new cases diagnosed in 2011 accounting for 13% of all new cancers. The lifetime risk of developing bowel cancer in the UK is 1 in 14 for men and 1 in 19 for women. To read more about bowel cancer and its treatment, please visit the Cancer Research UK website by clicking here.
Colorectal cancer can be prevented via polypectomy, which is the removal of pre-cancerous growths (polyps) within the bowel at either colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy. This is a safe, mostly painless procedure with highly effective results.
For further information on our bowel cancer screening programme click here.
Questions or problems after your procedure
In the case of an emergency you are advised to attend your nearest A&E department, taking a copy of your endoscopy report with you.
For other queries you can contact a member of the medical staff in the endoscopy department on 020 8235 4141 or 020 8235 4142 (outside of 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Monday to Friday call 020 8864 3232 and ask to speak to the gastroenterologist on call for St Mark’s) or speak to your GP.
Referral Guidelines
Referral Guidelines for Clinicians
Meet the Team
We have a world class team of physicians, surgeons, nurses and technical staff delivering endoscopy at St Mark’s The National Bowel Hospital, Central Middlesex. Our St Mark’s staff also work cross-site at Northwick Park and Ealing Hospitals. You can find out more about our team and your clinician on our consultants page here.