Colorectal surgery
Visitor Information
Translation help:
To translate this page into your preferred language, click the Google Translate icon in the top-right menu and select your desired language.
Our colorectal surgery service provides a full range of diagnostic tests, scans, outpatient consultations and treatments for patients with symptoms suggestive of benign and malignant diseases of the gastrointestinal tract including colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and anorectal conditions such as haemorrhoids.
Our service also investigates patients referred on the suspected colorectal cancer (two week wait) pathway and is closely linked with the cancer service.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is one of the top recruitment hospitals in the country for research trials. We are one of the leading exponents of laparoscopic colorectal surgery in London and we are experts in the management of early rectal cancer which may not require radical surgery. We are the lead centre for anal cancer in north west London.
Conditions and treatments
Our service treats benign bowel disorders including diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, haemorrhoids and fissure. We also treat pelvic floor disorders, as well as colorectal and anal cancer.
Bowel cancer is usually treated with surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy or sometimes a combination of all three. Benign conditions such as diverticular disease may just require lifestyle advice and reassurance. Haemorrhoids may be treated in the clinic with banding or may require surgery which includes Doppler-guided haemorrhoidal artery ligation, haemorrhoidectomy or stapled anopexy. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease are always managed with a gastroenterologist.
Clinics
Colorectal surgery clinic at Charing Cross Hospital
Address
Main outpatients department
First floor
Charing Cross Hospital
Fulham Palace Road
London W6 8RF
Contact information
Phone: 020 3311 1234
Colorectal surgery clinic at Hammersmith Hospital
Address
Main outpatients department
Ground floor
A block
Hammersmith Hospital
Du Cane Road
London W12 0HS
Contact information
Phone: 020 3313 1000
Colorectal surgery clinic at St Mary's Hospital
Address
Outpatients department
Ground floor
Surgical Innovation Centre (Paterson Building)
St Mary’s Hospital
Praed Street
London W2 1NY
Please note: The Surgical Innovation Centre (Paterson Building) can be accessed via South Wharf Road.
Contact information
Phone: 020 3312 6666
Meet the team
Consultants
Mr Paul Ziprin, chief of service
Mr Barry Paraskevas
Mr George Reese
Mr James Kinross
Mr Alexander Van Roon
Professor Ara Darzi
Miss Maria Souvatzi
Dr Nagy Matar
Dr Nabil El Masry
Mr Simon Wood, plastic surgeon
Suzanne Evans, dietitian
Mr Alan Farthing, gynaecologist
Dr Dominic Blunt, imaging specialist
Dr Marc Pelling, interventional radiologist
Bowel cancer screening practitioner team
Edith Ohadekwe, lead SSP, programme manager
Amy Ng, SSP
Dawn Forsythe, SSP
Kim Roche, SSP
Oliviana Rusu, SSP administrator
Histopathologists
Patrizia Cohen
Rob Goldin
Michael Osborn
Jo Lloyd
Macmillan clinical nurse specialists
Mauro Proserpio
Anne Moutadjer
Holly McEvoy
Kathleen Byrne
Katherine Thomas
Laura Avanzi
Enhanced recovery clinical nurse specialist
Clotilde Alves
Colorectal administrators
Lorraine Maranao
Abdi Jama
Judith MacDonald, surgical secretary
Nii Armah Okine, MDT co-ordinator
David Mead, two week wait tracker
MDT extended members
Huw Thomas, clinical geneticist, genetics counsellor
Patient information
Before your appointment
If you were referred via the two week wait pathway, your appointment will be within two weeks of referral. Routine referrals will be seen within six weeks.
We encourage you to bring a partner, relative, close friend or carer to your appointments, as it can be difficult to recall all of the information you discuss as well as any clinical advice given. We will provide you with a chaperone, usually a healthcare assistant (HCA).
We suggest you bring any medication you are taking to your outpatient appointment. Before your inpatient surgery, you will have an outpatient appointment as well as a pre-surgery assessment where you will discuss anything you may need to do in advance of your surgery, such as fast or stop taking certain blood-thinning medications. Please contact us for advice.
During your appointment
When you arrive at the clinic, please check in at reception and confirm your contact details and GP information. Waiting times are typically around 30 minutes.
Please note that we are a teaching hospital, so medical students may be present for some appointments. If you do not wish to have them in the room please let the nurse or doctor know and the students will be asked to step outside.
You can expect your first appointment to take 30 to 40 minutes. Any follow-up appointments will be slightly shorter. At your appointment, you will be seen by either a senior doctor or a senior nurse. After the clinician has asked many questions you may have an abdominal examination, a rectal examination or both. An abdominal examination is when you lie on a couch and the clinician will examine your tummy for any abnormalities. A rectal examination involves the clinician examining your back passage to exclude any abnormalities. This is done by first feeling inside the back passage with a gloved finger and then introducing a small telescope to view the inside of the bowel. The clinician may or may not take a biopsy. This is not a painful procedure. The clinician may then decide to refer you for further investigation to provide further information to his or her examination. The clinician will explain all this to you after examination.
After your appointment
If you are both consented and listed for surgery, you will be referred to the pre-assessment clinic, which is a walk-in clinic, and the assessment will be done on the same day.
After your initial appointment a letter will be sent to your GP outlining the findings of your appointment. You will be sent a copy of this letter. If the clinician during your appointment recommended that you have some tests – usually a colonoscopy (looking at the whole large bowel using a telescope) or sigmoidoscopy (looking at the lower end of the large bowel using a telescope) – you would have been asked to deliver the form to the endoscopy department so you can be allocated a date. You should receive a call two to seven days after this to confirm your availability for the test, followed by a letter once a date is confirmed with you. If the clinician wanted you to have a CT scan, MRI scan or endo-anal ultrasound the clinician will have booked these electronically in the clinic and the scanning department will contact you by letter informing you when the test will take place.
Patient information leaflets
Further online resources
Your inpatient stay Your stay in hospital
You may need to stay at one of our hospitals to have a procedure or receive treatment, either overnight as an inpatient or during the day as a day patient. Ahead of your inpatient stay, you will usually need to attend a pre-operative assessment appointment.
Find out more about how you can reschedule or cancel your inpatient stay, pre-operative assessments, what to bring with you when you come to hospital and much more.