Hepatology

Northeast London Community Liver Health Checks

Liver disease can be present without any symptoms for many years. We want to diagnose liver disease as early as possible to give people with liver disease the best chance of recovery. It is estimated that over 2,000,000 people are living with liver disease, making it the fifth largest cause of death in the country.

The community liver health van enables clinical staff to offer a simple non-invasive test to people aged 35-70 who may be at increased risk of liver disease, based on their medical history. Visitors can expect to receive a simple and quick non-invasive test, called a fibro scan, from a trained nurse. This test looks for any liver inflammation or scarring and is completely painless.

Liver disease has no symptoms in the early stages, and as 90% of liver disease is preventable, it is really valuable for people to get an early diagnosis and benefit from specialist treatments that may not be effective at a later stage. Early screening also helps people make conscious lifestyle changes to improve their liver function and overall health.

Those aged between 35 and 70 with one or more of the following eligibility criteria are encouraged to come along.

• Past or current history of blood-borne virus- Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C
• Diabetes or Pre-diabetic
• Known or suspected fatty liver.
• Overweight
• Alcohol intake over 14 units per week (equivalent to 6 pints of beer or cider, or 1.5 bottles of wine)

Northeast London Liver Health Community Events

If you feel that any of these risk factors apply to you, we would love to see you at one of our screening events.

We also offer testing for Hepatitis C so please do ask on the day!

Date	Borough	Site address	Session Type
08 May 2024	Tower Hamlets	TBC?? (City)	Drop in
09 May 2024	Waltham Forest	TBC? (Waltham Forest)	Drop in
06 June 2024	Tower Hamlets	Acorn House, 116-118 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JN	Drop in
12 June 2024	Hackney	Dalston Market, Hackney Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP	Drop in
13 June 2024	Hackney	Dalston Market, Hackney Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP	Drop in
27 June 2024	Waltham Forest	CGL Waltham forest, 1 Beulah Rd, London E17 9LG	Drop in
24 July 2024	Tower Hamlets	RLH Courtyard, Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1FR	Drop in
25 July 2024	Tower Hamlets	RLH Courtyard, Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1FR	Drop in
07 August 2024	Hackney	Dalston Market, Hackney Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP	Drop in
08 August 2024	Hackney	Dalston Market, Hackney Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP	Drop in
04 September 2024	Newham	TBC? (Newham)	Drop in
05 September 2024	Newham	TBC? (Newham)	Drop in
12 September 2024	Waltham Forest	CGL Waltham forest, 1 Beulah Rd, London E17 9LG	Drop in
30 October 2024	Newham	TBC? (Newham)	Drop in
31 October 2024	Newham	TBC? (Newham)	Drop in
27 November 2024	Hackney	Dalston Market, Hackney Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP	Drop in
28 November 2024	Hackney	Dalston Market, Hackney Ridley Road, London, E8 2NP	Drop in
15 January 2025	Tower Hamlets	RLH Courtyard, Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1FR	Drop in
16 January 2025	Tower Hamlets	RLH Courtyard, Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1FR	Drop in
12 March 2025	Tower Hamlets	Sainsburys, Whitechapel, 3 Brady St, London E1 5DL	Drop in
13 March 2025	Tower Hamlets	Sainsburys, Whitechapel, 3 Brady St, London E1 5DL	Drop in
26 March 2025	Havering and Redbridge	TBC? (Havering and Redbridge)	Drop in
27 March 2025	Havering and Redbridge	TBC? (Havering and Redbridge)	Drop in

Contact us at bartshealth.communityliverhealth@nhs.net to learn more about the availability of the event.

Liver disease can present with a variety of symptoms including:

• jaundice
• itching
• abdominal swelling
• confusion and bleeding problems.

Importantly, however, some patients with chronic liver disease can remain asymptomatic for many years and may only present with the complications of chronic liver disease, which is often too late to offer any meaningful therapeutic intervention.

If you think you have a liver problem, it is important to see your GP for an initial assessment, and they can refer you to our service if clinically indicated.

We treat

• Viral liver disease; Hepatitis B, C and delta virus
• Alcohol-related liver disease
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
• Auto-immune hepatitis
• Primary biliary cholangitis
• Primary sclerosing cholangitis
• Wilson’s Disease
• Haemochromatosis
• Cirrhosis

Our main hospital is The Royal London Hospital, but we have outpatient clinics at Newham Hospital, Whipps Cross Hospital and we take referrals from across north-east London. 

If you are not registered with our service and you think you need to be seen by a member of our team, you should ask your GP to refer you to the hepatology department at your nearest hospital.

Contact us

If you are already known with our service and need to get in touch with an enquiry/change an appointment, please contact our team.

• Medication requests: 020 359 46765
• Telephone Contact: 0203 594 6765, 020 359 46503 or 020 359 40501 (9am-5pm)
• General enquiries/appointment queries: email us

Referrals

We accept referrals from across Barts Health for inpatient and outpatient work, and across north-east London. If you have a patient you believe would be eligible for our service, please email us.

Outpatient clinics

• Viral Hepatitis - including Hepatitis B, C and delta
• NAFLD
• General hepatology
• HCC
• Advanced liver disease and transplant assessment
• Hot liver clinic – by arrangement with hepatology service only. Please discuss with the hepatologist of the week by bleeping 1270 if you would like to book a patient into this clinic.

MDTs

We run weekly MDTs on:

• Hepatitis C
• Hepatitis B
• HCC
• NAFLD
• HPB Radiology

If you would like to refer a patient to one of our MDTs, please email bartshealth.hepatology.services@nhs.net for further information.

Inpatients

For inpatient advice regarding hepatology matters, please contact the hepatology registrar on bleep 1270, Monday-Friday, 8.30am-5pm.

Out-of-hours cover for emergency matters is available via switch (non-resident). There is a named hepatology consultant on call every week.

The NHS is committed to eliminating hepatitis C as a major public health issue in England, ahead of the World Health Organization's goal to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.

Achieving this ambition is crucial. If left untreated, hepatitis C can lead to life-threatening conditions like liver cancer or liver failure. While significant progress is being made to reduce the number of people with hepatitis C, more needs to be done to prevent new infections and reinfections.

Many people across England may have hepatitis C without knowing. Sharing toothbrushes, getting tattoos abroad, having unprotected sexual intercourse and injecting drugs are just some of the ways people can contract hepatitis C. To reach our goal of eliminating hepatitis C we need to get more people testing.

If you are over the age of 18 and live in England, can now order a free and confidential home test for hepatitis C via the NHS. This is an at-home, self-sample test taking a few drops of blood from your finger. If found positive for hepatitis C, you can be treated and cured.

Order a free and confidential home testing kit today: Home - HepC 

We have a strong track record for leading and taking part in clinical studies and collaborating with other liver centres across the UK and abroad. Our aim is to further develop our medical understanding of liver disease and to ensure our patients have access to new treatments and the latest therapies for the management of liver disease.

We also work closely with a dedicated team of scientists undertaking laboratory research. This has resulted in our research being published in high-impact peer reviewed journals.

Clinical studies

We have a wide range of clinical studies currently open – particuarly for patients with Hepatitis B and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. We run these clinical trials from the Grahame Hayton Unit the The Royal London Hospital.

If you would like to find out more about taking part in research, please speak to your doctor or nurse and ask whether there is a clinical trial that you may be eligible for.