Gastroenterology

The department of Gastroenterology is involved in the diagnosis and management of acute and chronic gastrointestinal and liver disease. We are a regional service covering the central North Island and provide specialist services (e.g. double balloon enteroscopy, and fibroscan) for the whole of New Zealand.

We have three endoscopy rooms which we share with the respiratory physicians and surgical endoscopists. We also have access to radiology - three sessions / week for ERCP.

What we do

• Outpatient clinics

• Gastroenterology
• Hepatology
• Liver transplant
• Viral hepatitis
  

• Outpatient procedures

• Gastroscopy
• Gastrostomy tube insertion
• Double balloon enteroscopy
• Colonoscopy
• Liver fibroscan
• Capsule endoscopy
• ERCP
  

• Inpatient care for Gastroenterology and Hepatology patients
• Inpatient consultations as requested
• International clinical trials (including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and viral hepatitis).
  

Who we are                    Six consultants One advanced trainee (registrar)               One senior house officer                      One specialist Hepatology nurse          One IBD nurse One percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) nurse Three clinical research nurses

Education program Weekly histopathology Weekly radiology Weekly journal club Registrar tutorials

Research and innovation

We are a progressive department which has led the way by being the first department in New Zealand to introduce double-balloon enteroscopy (DBE) and liver fibroscan. We were a finalist in the New Zealand Health Innovation awards and won the innovation section at the DHB Best of Health awards for our work with the DBE.

We will be commencing endoscopic ultrasound early in 2010.

Nursing in Gastroenterology

Nursing in Gastroenterology is split into three areas:

• outpatients – with one nurse and a Hepatitis specialist nurse
• elective and acute endoscopy – we provide 24 hour nursing cover for acute GI bleeding
• inpatients - ward 23.
  

The Endoscopy Suite is managed alongside the Medical Day Care Unit by a clinical nurse manager and a team of:

• 11 FTE – including one NETP (Nurse Entry To Practice)
• two clerical – a receptionist and a booking clerk
• one health care assistant
• 1.2 FTE endoscopy scope cleaning technicians.
  

The Endoscopy Suite has a coordinator managing the scoping lists on a daily basis. There are 23 elective lists scheduled / week with acute patients also scheduled on these lists.

The nursing staff have a range of individual specialised roles such as IBD nurse, capsule endoscopy, PEG management and the audit database. We have three on-going audits: acute bleed, PEG and colonoscopy procedures.

The nursing staff all take turns to present at the multidisciplinary journal club held weekly and at national conference. We have had several successes at this conference winning the first time presenters prize twice, best journal article and overall best paper in recent years.

The nursing staff embrace new technology with enthusiasm and are pivotal to the progressiveness of the department.