Meet the Team

We work closely with gastroenterologists, radiologists, oncologists, pathologists and surgeons to provide care to our patients with a wide range of conditions.

Our specialist hepatology nurses look after patients with viral hepatitis, haemochromatosis and alcohol use disorders.

Consultants

Professor Daniel Forton PhD FRCP

Professor Forton is a Consultant Hepatologist in the trust and Professor of Practice (Hepatology) at St Georges, University of London. He serves as Associate Medical Director and the trust lead for Research and Development. He is also the Clinical Lead for the South West London Hepatitis Operational Delivery Network. After gaining his PhD at Imperial College London, he was appointed a Consultant in 2005 and now has many years of experience in managing both common and complex clinical conditions across the breadth of liver and pancreaticobiliary medicine. His main clinical interests are viral hepatitis, fatty liver, community Hepatology and interventional endoscopy (ERCP). He is a keen advocate of evidence-based medicine and continues to be a leading investigator in clinical trials of novel treatments in a range of liver diseases, having led over 50 clinical trials at St Georges. He has published extensively (see below) and lectures locally and internationally.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0903-9169

Dr Sarah Clark MD FRCP

Dr Clark is a consultant hepatologist, being appointed in 2003. Her Doctorate of Medicine was carried out at Kings Liver Unit, investigating insulin resistance in acute liver failure, this predominantly being undertaken on the Liver Intensive Care Unit. Dr Clark is experienced in the management of common and complex liver and hepatobiliary conditions. She is the lead for the hepatocellular carcinoma service with additional interests in viral hepatitis, auto-immune liver disease, cirrhosis and its complications and interventional endoscopy (ERCP). Dr Clark has a strong commitment to education and training and was training programme director for south London in gastroenterology for 9 years, stepping down in 2021.

Dr Sarah Hughes MD FRCP

Dr Hughes is the lead for the portal hypertension service and Care Group Lead for Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She is experienced in a wide range of treatments for liver-related conditions including liver transplantation, with weekly sessions at the regional transplantation centre at King’s College Hospital. She runs a sub-specialty cirrhosis and portal hypertension clinic, including supervision of a nurse-led stable cirrhosis surveillance clinic, as well as management of those with complications of portal hypertension, bridging them to transplant assessment at King’s where appropriate. She is the lead for the cirrhosis MDT which brings together a multidisciplinary team of health professionals in the management of those with advanced cirrhosis and its complications. She is currently the PI for two multicentre NIHR portfolio adopted studies investigating treatments for those with varices.

Dr Arjuna Singanayagam PhD MRCP

Dr Singanayagam is a Senior Lecturer in Hepatology at St. George’s University of London and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at St. George’s NHS Foundation Trust. After undertaking the Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship and completing a PhD at Imperial College London in immune mechanisms conferring susceptibility to infection in cirrhosis and acute-on-chronic liver failure, he was appointed as a Consultant in 2019. His research in the field continues at St. George’s where is has developed a translational liver immunology programme and has setup collaborative networks with King’s College Hospital and Imperial College London. He is the lead for Hepatology research for the South London NIHR Clinical Research Network. His clinical and research interests include cirrhosis and its complications, acute-on-chronic liver failure, autoimmune liver diseases and alcohol-related hepatitis. He has published widely (see below) and lectures in a variety of forums.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9097-2564

Dr Sophie Barker FRCP

Dr Barker is a consultant gastroenterologist with interest in hepatology, part of the in-patient hepatology service, with particular experience in hepatopancreaticobiliary cancer.

Dr Metin Yalcin MRCP

Dr Yalcin is a consultant hepatologist and the clinical governance co-lead for the Gastroenterology and Hepatology department at St. George’s NHS Foundation Trust. He graduated from Barts and the London Medical School in 2009 and undertook specialist training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Kent Surrey and Sussex Deanery. He also completed an endoscopy and clinical research fellowship at St. George’s NHS Foundation Trust. His clinical interests include pancreaticobiliary disease, EUS and ERCP. He is a keen advocate of an integrated quality and safety framework with patients and their families at the core. He has a strong background in medical education including a postgraduate certification with a particular interest in programme development

Dr Markus Gess FRCP

Dr Gess is a consultant hepatologist primarily working at Kingston General Hospital but with weekly sessions at St. George’s in the viral hepatitis service.

Nursing and wider team

Clinical Nurse Specialists – Viral Hepatitis

Nick Tatman

Laura Letham

Viral Hepatitis Treatment Co-ordinators

James Attridge-Smith

Charlotte Luongo

Liver CAS Co-ordinator

William Ovenden

Alcohol Clinical Nurse Specialist

Sally Pannifex

Upper GI / HPB Cancer Nurse Specialists

Kirsty Mc Cartney

Jessica Batchelor

Hayley Aparicio

Yanessa Balbin

Specialist Liver Pharmacists

Helen Boothman

Hannah Hesketh

Allingham Ward Team

Senior Sisters

Linda Smith (Matron)

Loralie Labanda