We treat the digestive system without surgery: the food pipe, stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder and pancreas. Long-standing acidity, difficulty swallowing, jaundice, vomiting blood, persistent diarrhoea and liver disease are all treated here.
One consultant gastroenterologist sees patients here. Our endoscopy service passes a thin flexible camera into the digestive tract to look directly and treat what is found in the same sitting. Band ligation and glue injection stop active bleeding from the food pipe. For operations on the digestive organs, see our Surgical Gastroenterology department.
Conditions we treat
- Long-standing acidity
- Difficulty or pain on swallowing
- Jaundice and liver disease
- Bleeding from the digestive tract, vomiting blood or passing black stools
- Persistent diarrhoea
- Stones in the bile duct
Services and procedures
- Upper endoscopy, a camera down the food pipe into the stomach
- Colonoscopy, a camera into the large bowel
- ERCP, reaching the bile duct and pancreatic duct to clear a blockage such as a stone
- Dilation, widening a narrowed food pipe so swallowing is possible again
- Variceal band ligation, tying off swollen veins in the food pipe that bleed in liver disease
- Glue injection, sealing a bleeding vein
- Polypectomy, removing a growth from the bowel wall through the camera
When to seek emergency care
Vomiting blood, or passing black tarry stools, is an emergency: come to our emergency department at once, or call 1800 345 7777. Yellowing of the eyes or skin, a change in bowel habit lasting more than a few weeks, or unexplained weight loss needs an early appointment rather than a wait.
