Our Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Team provides a comprehensive range of general and specialist IBD clinical services to the population of York and surrounding area for patients with a diagnosis of IBD. This involves in-patient hospital care and outpatient clinics in York and Scarborough, delivered by consultants and specialist nurses.

Our team members come from a range of specialist backgrounds and work together to deliver the best possible care for our patients. Our gastroenterologists are doctors who specialise in disorders of the intestines (bowels) and liver. All the doctors within the team have a special interest in IBD. They will discuss your condition with you and decide. along with you, the most appropriate way to investigate and treat your IBD. You will be allocated a named consultant, and they have overall responsibility for your IBD care and are kept up to date with your progress, but you will not necessarily see them at each appointment. A team of registrars and fellows support the consultants. These are doctors who are undergoing specialist training or who have an interest in gastroenterology.

You may be referred for assessment and treatment by other members of the IBD multidisciplinary team, including surgeons, dietitians, and psychologists. From time to time, we may also need to re-assess disease activity with endoscopy and blood tests.  Some patients may also require medications administered as a day-case treatment in one of the Trust's infusion units.

Other members of the IBD team include gastroenterology pharmacists, secretarial, administrative, and research staff.

The IBD Specialist Nursing Team

The IBD Nurse Specialists are senior nurses with specialist training in IBD.  They play a key role in assessing and monitoring patients on a range of drug therapies, as well as providing expert advice and information on all aspects of inflammatory bowel disease. They are also the first point of contact via the inflammatory bowel disease advice line.

The IBD nursing service provides patients with information and support, allowing for self-management where appropriate, while providing access to advice, care, and treatment as a priority.

This is achieved in a variety of ways, including:

• providing patient education
• providing counselling and monitoring for medications
• co-ordinating care and referring to other health professionals as required

The IBD specialist nurses offer an expert service and work closely with the gastroenterology consultants and other members of the multidisciplinary team to manage a caseload of patients and will:

• review patients in clinic to assess disease activity and response to medications, change treatment where indicated, and provide ongoing education and support
• provide advice by telephone to patients and other health professionals
• assess, monitor, and support patients receiving disease-modifying and biologic therapies
• refer to and liaise with other health professionals as required
• provide a link between hospital and community services

The IBD specialist nurses deliver a continually evolving service for inpatients and outpatients with inflammatory bowel disease by:

• working locally, regionally, and nationally to develop the role as indicated by current and emerging evidence base, providing advanced nursing expertise and leadership at strategic level
• delivering appropriate training and teaching for healthcare professionals within the hospital