Gastroenterology is the study of diseases of the gut, by which I mean anything from your mouth all the way through to your bottom and also the other organs that are important in digestion, such as the liver and pancreas.

We see patients of all ages with a wide spectrum of symptoms. Starting from up the top, we see people with problems swallowing food that sticks, we see people with heartburn, we see lots of patients with indigestion, we see lots of patients who are malabsorbing and then losing weight, we see many patients with diarrhoea, abdominal pain and bleeding from their bottom. We also see lots of patients with abnormal liver tests, but most of these patients have no symptoms; it's just the GP has done blood tests because they're at risk of liver disease, and these have been shown to be abnormal.

To maintain good gut health, one has to focus on what we eat and how much we eat. There's a lot of evidence now that processed food may well not be good for us. This is backed up by the increased incidence of inflammatory bowel disease and the increased incidence of colorectal cancer, even in people at a younger age. Liver disease is hugely dependent on lifestyle. The commonest causes of liver disease are obesity-related fatty liver disease and alcohol related liver disease and both of those are due to lifestyles, particularly what we eat and drink.

Once the patient has decided their symptoms are bad enough that they want to discuss with their GP and been referred, the patient wants an answer quickly. Here at Benenden Hospital we have quick access to consultant appointments, whether this is face to face - which is definitely popular at the moment - or whether it's going to be on the telephone. And once you've been seen in clinic, you don't want another wait for your diagnostics and here people have their appropriate tests done promptly. We also hit all the national standards, and we’ve just won an award with regard to our endoscopy. Going to a hospital is a very stressful environment. You only have to walk into the doors of Benenden and you'll feel it's a very serene, very different environment.

Patients can be referred into the gastroenterology services in a number of ways. The traditional way is with a referral from the GP or via their private insurer, but patients can self-refer via the Benenden Hospital online referral tool and some people self-refer because of screening for potential illnesses that they are currently asymptomatic for.