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St. Mark’s Hospital relocation to Central Middlesex is complete

St Mark’s completes a ‘remarkable journey’ marked by unveiling of plaque by Sir Tom Troubridge          

By Christopher Browne – Roar! Editor

It’s official! St Mark’s at London’s Central Middlesex Hospital is finally open for business.

Actually, it’s been open for business and operating as the new St Mark’s (sharing duties and departments with the ‘old’ St Mark’s at Northwick Park, Harrow) for almost three years.

However, last week all the key figures behind the move held a buoyant, good-humoured opening ceremony at this clean, clinical ultra-modern hospital site in central London’s Park Royal.

The new St Mark’s consultants, surgeons, research specialists, doctors, nurses, support staff, former patients and support groups mingled with distinguished St Mark’s consultants from the past and several guests headed by the local MP Dawn Butler, Labour MP for Brent East, and the Labour peer Baroness Pilkeithley.

In her introduction, Pippa Nightingale, CEO of the London North West University Healthcare Trust, praised the activities of the Red Lion Group, comments that were greeted with a flurry of applause from the audience. Then several speakers reviewed the hospital’s achievements of the past three years, which Sir Tom Troubridge, Chairman of the St Mark’s Hospital Foundation, referred to as a “remarkable journey”.
(See below for full details of Speakers)

Suddenly the mood changed when we were invited to lunch. Most of us have our own take on hospital food, but this time it was different – a lavish spread that would do credit to anything from M&S (perhaps some of it came from there!).

The good humour was spreading and the by-now cheerful throng was divided into groups for a series of guided tours of the hospital’s new departments, some of its streamlined, recently-installed equipment – and many admiring glances at the building’s radical design features.

Finally, we all assembled in the main atrium where a commemorative plaque was unveiled by Sir Tom Troubridge.

See Pictures from event below.

  • Plaque Group
  • Plaque Group
  • John Nichols & James Thomson
  • Plaque Group
  • Jason Bacon & Sir Tom Troubridge
  • Pippa Nightingale & Dawn Butler
  • James Thomson & John Nicholls
  • Simon Gabe, Dawn Butler – intestinal rehabilitation
  • Siwan Thomas Gibson
  • John Nicholls & Robin Kennedy
  • Sir Tom Troubridge
  • Gary Bronziet, Chris Browne & David Davies (Red Lion Group)
  • The St. Mark’s Plaque

Speakers in details :-

  • How and why St Mark’s Hospital Moved
    Professor Omar Faiz – Medical Co-Director St Mark’s Hospital
  • What has been Achieved in the last three years?
    Miss Carolynne Vaizey – Medical Co-Director St Mark’s Hospital
  • What does the future hold?
    Professor Siwan Thomas Gibson – Incoming Medical Director, St Mark’s Hospital & Mr Ian Jenkins – Incoming Deputy Medical Director, St Mark’s Hospital
  • A Remarkable journey
    Sir Tom Troubridge, Chairman of the St Mark’s Hospital Foundation.

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Stories

The remarkable story of the world’s first pouch patient

The remarkable story of the world’s first pouch patient

Roar! editor Christopher Browne speaks to Haresh Ruparelia, son of the original ileo-anal pouchee

Remember the turbulent 1970s? Some of us do and RLG’s new treasurer Haresh Ruparelia certainly does even though he was a mere toddler at the time. He also recalls the events of that decade for a completely different reason. In 1972, Haresh, his parents and his two young siblings were forced to leave their home, jobs and schools in the African republic of Uganda during the dictatorship of Idi Amin. “After considering Fiji at one point, my father Pravinchandra (known as Pravin) moved the family to the UK. He managed to find work quite quickly and chose to settle in Ilford, East London,” said Haresh.


“a desperately difficult
period for my parents”

Haresh Ruparelia


Admitted to hospital

Then fate struck the family a second time when in 1974 Haresh’s 35-year-old father was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (UC). “His symptoms soon became chronic and physically he had gone from being a fit, strong and healthy young man to someone who was frail, very underweight, unable to work and seemingly staring death in the face,” he said.

“As a child I was protected from the seriousness of it all, but knowing what I have since found out, it must have been a desperately difficult period for my parents,” Haresh explained. Pravin was first admitted to St Mark’s Hospital, then based in London’s City Road in 1974. However, as his symptoms worsened, he was re-admitted two years later in 1976. In July of the same year, he had the first part of a radical new operation. It was of course the first stage of an ileo-anal pouch – shaped out of the small intestine to replace the need for the large one – which had been created by the hospital’s consultant surgeon Alan (later Sir Alan) Parks. The operation, which was also performed by Mr Parks, replaced the more conventional option of an ileostomy. Pravin was the first of a group of five patients at St Mark’s and the London (later Royal London) hospitals to have the revolutionary surgery. Just over a year later, Pravin had his final closure and became the proud owner of a pouch.

“This pioneering surgery gave my father and the family a new lease of life. Following surgery my father’s physical condition recovered significantly and as a result he was able to start living a normal life again. “He was able to return to working full time, earn a decent living for the family and fully enjoy social activities too. This in turn allowed the entire family to live normal lives for the many years that followed,” said Haresh.

“My father’s experience of the pouch was generally good. He had to use a catheter to empty the pouch and therefore needed to keep equipment with him wherever he went. He preferred to use disabled facilities wherever they were available and took care regarding the size and timings of meals when out and about,” added Haresh. “I suppose that to him these were trivial inconveniences in light of the condition he had suffered prior to surgery – and preferable to having an ileostomy.”


“Pouch surgery was extremely successful for my father and for that the family will forever
be indebted to the late Sir Alan Parks and his team”

Sir Alan Parks


First pouch patient

After those first five pouch operations, Mr Parks and his senior registrar, John Nicholls (later Professor Nicholls and a patron of RLG), wrote an article titled ‘Proctocolectomy without ileostomy for ulcerative colitis’ 1 for the British Medical Journal. In the report, Pravin is referred to as the first case to have a pouch fitted. Commented Haresh: “A point made in the BMJ article about the importance of temperament was perhaps applicable in my father’s case. He was a very philosophical person and not shy. This perhaps allowed him to put himself forward as one of the early candidates for surgery and subsequently helped him to cope with having to use a catheter. “The other significant factor that helped my father cope with his illness and the surgery was the presence and support of my mother. She coped with so much whilst Dad was ill and always remained by his side, providing practical and moral support through the darkest hours before the surgery in 1976 and thereafter when living with the pouch, the ileostomy and the related issues that arose from time to time.”


“This pioneering
surgery gave my
father and the family
a new lease of life”

Pravin Ruparelia


Mainly incident-free

And Pravin’s life with a pouch was mainly incident-free for almost 40 years until 2014 when he developed pouchitis and due to complication with the pouch needed an ileostomy until he died in January 2022 aged 82.

“Overall, pouch surgery was extremely successful for my father and for that the family are grateful and will forever be indebted to the late Sir Alan Parks and his team, Professor John Nicholls and everyone involved for all the hard work in pioneering the surgery, providing treatment and support to patients pre- and post-surgery and for sharing the knowledge with the wider medical profession and patients. “Dad could have gone to beautiful, sunny Fiji when he left Uganda… but he came to England, had the fortune of being referred to St Mark’s Hospital and the rest is history,” added Haresh.

  1. You can download a copy of this historic paper below. While researching his fathers pouch history, Haresh came across correspondence which confirmed that his father was indeed the patient referred to in that paper as Case number 1.
    ↩︎
Parks Nicholls Paper 1978
Parks Nicholls Paper 1978
Download Now!1772 Downloads

AND A VERY HAPPY FOOTNOTE: RLG is delighted to welcome Haresh Ruparelia as our new treasurer!

A version of this article first appeared in ROAR! issue #66 – Winter 2023. If you would like to read other articles like this, why not become a member of the Red Lion Pouch Support group? You will receive printed copy of ROAR! twice a year and have online access to archive ROAR! editions going all the way back to issue number 1, published in 1994. See pouchsupport.org/join for further information.

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  • Ileo-anal Surgery – A Guide for Patients
    Date
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News

Another award for the St. Mark’s Hospital Pouch nurse…

Another award for the St. Mark’s Hospital Pouch nurse team!

We are delighted to announce that Petya Marinova – Lead Nurse Pouch and Stoma Care, was presented with the Healthcare Honours, New Talent Award, 2023. The awards ceremony was held at the Houses of Parliament on Thursday evening, 23rd November, showcasing NHS leadership and management roles. 

The New Talent award shortlisted individuals with up to 5 years of experience in a leadership or managerial position who had shown remarkable potential as a leader and made outstanding contributions to their organisation, either on their own projects or in support of colleagues and/or more senior leaders. The nominee could be in a clinical or non-clinical leadership role, which provided some stiff competition but Petya claimed the prize for us all. We are so proud of her.

The Stoma/Pouch Management Team – Zarah Perry-Woodford and Petya Marinova were also shortlisted and Highly Commended for the Improving Outcomes: Management Team Award which highlighted an NHS management team, from any specialism or area, that made active improvements with a demonstrable impact on outcomes within (or even beyond) their area of responsibility.

They were also shortlisted for the Nursing Times Workforce Summit 2023,  Best Use of Workplace Technology but sadly we didn’t get gold this time!

Left to right – Zarah Perry-Woodford, Rali Marinova, Petya Marinova and Athira Kunnumpurathu

For further information about British Journal of healthcare Honours see https://www.healthcarehonours.com/

Related articles

  • Gold and silver for St Mark’s pioneering pouch care team
    Date
    April 20, 2023
  • Meet St. Mark’s award winning pouch nurse twins
    Date
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  • St. Mark’s stoma/pouch team nominated for Nursing Times awards – updated
    Date
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Stories

A brief history of St. Mark’s hospital

What’s in a name? Quite a lot it seems, especially if it’s about somewhere as familiar to all of us as St Mark’s Hospital reports Christopher Browne. In this article, Chris recounts the history and various identities of St. Mark’s, from it’s foundation in 1835 to it’s current status as the National Bowel Hospital in 2023.

Our name game begins in 1835 – almost 180 years ago – when the predecessor of St Mark’s Hospital was founded by a surgeon called Frederick Salmon. It’s name? The Infirmary for the Relief of the Poor afflicted with Fistula and other diseases of the Rectum and Lower Intestines.

Proud but loud, you might say!

This tiny infirmary of one room and seven beds was based at 11 Aldersgate Street in the City of London, and admitted 131 patients in its first year. It was often referred to as the Fistula Infirmary and was financially supported by the City of London council. 

The Lord Mayor, William Taylor Copeland, was one of Mr Salmon’s first patients and was appointed president of the hospital. Another famous patient was the author Charles Dickens who blamed his need for surgery on “too much sitting at my desk”.

After three years the number of patients trebled, so Salmon moved the infirmary to larger premises at 38 Charterhouse Square in London’s Islington. However, it kept on growing and 13 years later it moved to London’s City Road where a group of almshouses had been was converted into a 25-bed hospital.

The new hopital was opened on St. Mark’s Day – 25 April 1854 – and aptly enough renamed St Mark’s Hospital for Fistula and other Diseases of the Rectum.

But wait for it. Bigger things – or should I say names – were to come. The hospital’s soaring workload meant it needed to expand onto an adjacent site in City Road.

However, the costs for building the new site kept on soaring until the by now struggling hospital faced almost certain closure.

Enter Lillie Langtry, the illustrious American actress. In 1909, Miss Langtry organised a charity matinee performance at her theatre in London’s Drury Lane and raised enough money to rescue the project.

Once again the hospital was renamed – this time as St Mark’s Hospital for Cancer, Fistula and Diseases of the Rectum to reflect the work and interests of John Percy Lockhart-Mummery, who was the hospital’s senior surgeon and a pioneer in cancer surgery. Lockhart-Mummery’s colorectal work earned him the nickname “King Rectum”. 

Frederick Salmon – Founder of St. Mark’s Hospital

The hospital continued to expand and in 1948 it became part of the new National Health Service (NHS). The same year Francis Avery-Jones became the hospital’s consultant gastroenterologist, a post he held for 30 years until 1978. His work earned him the soubriquet “the father of gastroenterology”. He was also the pioneer of treatment for the peptic ulcer.

St Mark’s was run jointly with Hammersmith Hospital until the NHS reforms of 1972 when it forged a close partnership with London’s famous St Batholomew’s Hospital (commonly known as Bart’s). In 1995, it became part of the North West London NHS Trust and moved to a site next to Northwick Park Hospital.

St. Mark’s remained at the Northwick Park site until 2020. However, as a result of Northwick Park being a front-line hospital during the COVID crisis, most of the St. Mark’s services were moved “temporarily” to the nearby Central Middlesex Hospital, at Park Royal. In 2022, this move became permanent.

But hold on a minute, I can feel a name change coming on. Can you? Nothing so titillating I’m afraid. The hospital’s title gradually contracted to the now familiar St Mark’s Hospital.

Until recently. One of the many recent initiatives by the St Mark’s Hospital Foundation was to give the hospital’s name more authority by adding ‘The National Bowel Hospital’ to its title.

So stop the presses! We’re now known as St Mark’s, the National Bowel Hospital & Academic Institute.

Jason Bacon, the Foundation’s CEO, says: “It’s a recognition of our status as the UK’s primary centre for tertiary referrals: our complex cancer service has grown exponentially, while the title also recognises our national reputation for IBD and the recent influx of younger IBD patients to the hospital.”

Christopher Browne
RLG Commitee member and ROAR! editor


A version of this article first appeared in ROAR! If you would like to read other articles like this, why not become a member of the Red Lion Pouch Support group? You will receive printed copy of ROAR! twice a year and have online access to archive ROAR! editions going all the way back to issue number 1, published in 1994.

See pouchsupport.org/join for further information.


Another article about the history of St. Marks Hospital can be found at https://www.stmarkshospitalfoundation.org.uk/about/history/. Patients that have previously been treated at the old St. Mark’s building at City Road, London, may be particularly interested to see the video/documentary providing a tour of the building following it’s conversion to an upmarket apartment block.

News

Contacting the St. Mark’s Hospital Pouch Nurses (and other…

Contacting the St. Mark’s Hospital Pouch Nurses and other useful contacts (including PALS)

If you are a patient of St. Mark’s Hospital, you can contact the Pouch Nurse Team for advice by phone on 020 8453 2099 or by email at lnwh-tr.internalpouchcare@nhs.net

If you are not a patient of St. Mark’s, we recommend that you ask your GP for a referral. St. Mark’s Hospital is the UK National Bowel Hospital and accepts referrals from all over the UK.

You can find further details of the St. Mark’s Hospital Pouch and Stoma nurse team and how to refer a patient at https://www.stmarkshospital.nhs.uk/services-a-z/stoma-care/

Other contacts at St. Mark’s Hospital.

ST MARK’S SPECIALIST SURGICAL PRACTITIONERS – 
For surgical wound related problems or pre-assessment querie
s

Email: lnwh-tr.stmarkspractitioner@nhs.net 

ST MARK’S ENDOSCOPY – 
For Endoscopy procedure questions or appointments   

Telephone: 0208 235 4130
Email: lnwh-tr.endoscopy@nhs.net   

Website: https://www.stmarkshospital.nhs.uk/services-a-z/wolfson-unit-for-endoscopy/ 

ST MARK’S ADMISSIONS – 
For questions regarding your admission  

Telephone: 0208 235 4055
Email: lnwh-tr.stmadmissions@nhs.net 

ST MARK’S OUTPATIENTS – 
For outpatient appointments questions  

Telephone: 0208 235 4051/0208 963 8853
Email: lnwh-tr.smopd-appointments@nhs.net 

ST MARK’S IBD TEAM – 
For any IBD queries – e.g. IBD medications, Iron Infusion   

Telephone: Tel:0208 453 2368 (Advice line) /Secretary: 020 8235 4026,  Email: lnwh-tr.ibdnurse@nhs.net  

ST MARK’S INTESTINAL FAILURE UNIT – 
For Roundwood/IRU questions  

Telephone: 020 8453 2214
Email: LNWH-tr.IFU@nhs.net 

ST MARK’S NUTRITION NURSES – 
For Roundwood/IRU Nutrition nurses questions 

Telephone: 0208 235 4120
Email: LNWH-tr.St-Marks-Nutrition-Nurses@nhs.net

ST MARK’S BIOFEEDBACK – 
For biofeedback appointments and queries, contact the Biofeedback team

Telephone: 0208 453 2458
Email: 
lnwh-tr.biofeedbackphysiologystmreferrals@nhs.net

ST MARK’S MEDICAL SECRETARIES – 
For Consultant appointments and queries, contact your Medical Consultant secretary 

Dr Donnelly/Dr Gabe/Dr Holman’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 0208 235 4196
Email: dora.michaelides@nhs.net 

Dr Naghibi’s secretary – Telephone: 0208 235 4084  

Dr Amar Sharif/Dr Nikolaos Kamperidis’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 020 8869 3058
Email: Bharti.Huda@nhs.net 

Professor Hart/Dr Akbar’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 020 8869 5808
Email: sokantey@nhs.net  

ST MARK’S SURGICAL SECRETARIES – 

For Consultant appointments and queries, contact your Surgical Consultant secretary 

Miss Vaizey/Professor Faiz/Mr G Thomas’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 0208 235 4020 
Email: susan.russell6@nhs.net  

Mr Warusavitarne/Mr Mehta/Ms Williams’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 0208 235 4168 
Email: meeta.maru@nhs.net  

Ms E Burns/Mr A Antoniou/Mr I Jenkins’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 020 8235 4177 
Email: a.elie@nhs.net  

Mr Tozer/Miss Asha Senapati’s secretary – 
Telephone:
 020 8235 4195 
Email: rose.gonzalez@nhs.net  

Professor Clark’s secretary – 
Telephone: 
020 8235 4018 
Email: anne.wheelhouse@nhs.net

PATIENT ADVICE AND LIAISON SERVICE (PALS)

If you need advice about St. Mark’s services, don’t know where to turn to, or have concerns about your care, the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is there to help.

For PALS contact information go to https://www.lnwh.nhs.uk/pals/

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