Your treatment
Welcome to the your treatment section where you will find useful information on specific aspects of your treatment here at the Sheffield IBD centre. Please use the below drop down boxes for more information.
Welcome to the your treatment section where you will find useful information on specific aspects of your treatment here at the Sheffield IBD centre. Please use the below drop down boxes for more information.
Your doctor may order diagnostic testing to look for signs of IBD and rule out other possible medical conditions. Your first tests will probably include laboratory tests of your blood and poo.
Stool (faeces) samples can be dropped off at the phlebotomy department on C Floor in the outpatients building at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (Opening Hours Monday-Friday 7:30am-5:15pm) or to your GP practice if you live in South Yorkshire.
The samples must be contained in a ‘stool pot’ which can be obtained from your GP practice if you haven’t already been provided with one from the hospital.
Your doctor may recommend an endoscopy to get a detailed look at the inside of your colon using a small camera mounted to the end of a lighted tube.
A colonoscopy allows doctors to examine the colon, the lowest part of your large intestine, by inserting a flexible, lighted tube through the opening to your anus.
An upper endoscopy lets doctors see the gastrointestinal tract from the top down, using a flexible, lighted tube that’s inserted through your mouth, down the esophagus, into your stomach and as far down as the duodenum, which is the first section of your small intestine.
A capsule endoscope is a pill camera that is swallowed. This takes pictures as it moves through the gastrointestinal tract. The images are transmitted to a recorder worn on a belt, which are loaded onto a computer to allow the doctor or nurse to look at the images.
Endoscopy procedures take place at the following locations:
Royal Hallamshire (B Floor Endoscopy)
Royal Hallamshire (Clinical Investigations Unit)
Northern General Hospital (Endoscopy Unit)
Further testing could include X-rays of the upper and lower GI tract, MRI, CT or ultrasound. Your doctor may recommend a test that uses a contrast chemical that helps your doctors see a more clear and detailed picture of your GI tract. The type of contrast used varies by test.
These investigations are carried out in the following locations:
Hallamshire Hospital, C Floor
Northern General Hospital, D Floor Huntsman Unit
Weston Park Hospital Radiology
We will discuss your results with you at your next clinic appointment, or, you can call the IBD Nurse Advice Line on (0114) 2712209
A flare is when symptoms come back and you feel unwell. It will be very personal to you. The symptoms will vary from person to person, over time and will depend where your IBD is in your gut.
Signs of flare can include:
You may also experience symptoms outside the gut during a flare-up such as:
If you think you are having a flare, please call the IBD Nurse Advice Line on (0114) 271 2209 for advice and support. We keep urgent clinic slots available so that you can quickly see one of our specialists. If the advice line is not available, please call your GP or 111 for advice.
An IBD Nurse Advice Line runs on weekdays between 9am to 11am. We also provide an email and on-line service for non-urgent queries and repeat prescription requests.
If your question is not urgent, or you need a repeat prescription, please complete the on line form here and email it to us at sth.ibdnurse@nhs.net
We are not able to assess your symptoms or provide symptom advice via email – please call the advice line
If you leave a message via our advice line, please leave the following details:
We will call you back within 24 hours or on the next working day.
It is important that you let us know if you experience any of the following:
If your question is not urgent, or you need a repeat prescription, please complete the on-line form here. Or you can email us at sth.ibdnurse@nhs.net
Royal Hallamshire IBD clinics are held in medical outpatients on A floor. These include Nurse-led and Consultant clinics. Professor Lobo runs a Tuesday morning clinic from P Floor (Ward P1).
We are also now holding telephone and video clinics.
If you are a current patient and want to make or rearrange your appointment, please call (0114) 2268680.
A toolkit for people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), to help patients communicate confidently with healthcare professionals has launched in Sheffield.
The toolkit, which has been created in partnership with voice and rights charity VoiceAbility, has been designed with people living with conditions such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as part of the AWARE-IBD project.
The toolkit contains information and guidance to help you communicate confidently with your IBD team:
The toolkit can be read online via voiceability.org/aware-ibd or it can be downloaded here. To request a paper copy email aware-ibd@sheffield.ac.uk
The transition clinic is for young people who have been under the care of Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Moving from paediatric to adult care can be a difficult time – as a child your parents or guardian are responsible for your care, as an adolescent you have to learn to take on that responsibility yourself.
When you feel ready to transition to adult services, you will meet members of the adult team alongside the paediatric team in clinic at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Then, at your first appointment in the adult clinic at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital you will see members of the adult team, alongside the paediatric IBD Nurse from Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
After your care has been transferred to the hospital, you will have regular reviews with a named consultant and access to the IBD nurses.
The transition clinic is held every month, at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. You can find more information about transition here
We work jointly with the Colorectal Surgical team who have considerable expertise in managing all surgical aspects of IBD.
A joint IBD clinic is held every month at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital where patients are seen by both an IBD medical and surgical consultant, in order to discuss treatment options and plan ongoing care.
We work closely with the Obstetrics team at Jessop’s Hospital to provide joint care and monitoring during pregnancy.
A joint clinic is held every month at Jessop’s hospital by Dr Chew with a consultant obstetrician.
If you need to come in for a day case procedure, such as a medication infusion, you will come to the Clinical Investigations Unit on ward P1 at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.
Patients with a flare of IBD who need inpatient treatment are admitted to the Northern General Hospital. Ward based Gastroenterology Consultants and their team will manage inpatients with specialist input from the IBD team.
The IBD team holds a weekly specialist ward round on Thursday mornings. We have close links with the surgical team and may ask them to see you while you are in hospital if this is appropriate. Please contact your IBD team if you have any questions or wish to discuss your care.
The core IBD team holds a weekly meeting where we discuss the treatment of patients with complex needs. These meetings help us to make the best decisions about your care, taking all aspects of your treatment into account. These meetings will include members of the medical and nursing teams with specialists from the following teams:
Medication prescribed in outpatient’s clinics or via the IBD Nurse Advice Line can be collected from Crucible Pharmacy on C Floor at the Royal Hallamshire.
Opening Hours: Monday-Friday 8:30am -7pm, Saturdays 9am-2pm, Closed Sundays
Some medicines can be delivered to your home; ask at clinic or via the advice line if this would be appropriate for you.
Your doctor may advise surgery if your IBD has not responded to drugs and/or nutritional therapies, or as an emergency if you have serious acute symptoms. Colorectal surgeons with particular expertise in IBD surgery are key members of the IBD team.
Gastroenterologists and surgeons meet regularly with radiological colleagues to plan treatment for individual patients.
An important part of this collaboration is a combined medical and surgical clinic where people considering surgery can discuss options with a consultant gastroenterologist and colorectal surgeon in the same consultation.
Our colorectal surgeons have extensive experience of a wide range of new and established surgical treatments for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
