The Division of Gastroenterology, under the Faculty of Health Sciences is an HPCSA accredited training unit for Gastroenterology, in South Africa. The unit has two components: One based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) and the other at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH). We pride ourselves in providing good quality healthcare to our patients suffering from a wide variety of gastrointestinal, pancreatic and hepatobiliary disorders. Together with the Wits Donald Gordon Medical centre, we have a liver transplant unit, which offers our patients with end stage liver disease a life-saving procedure. This is done in association with a knowledgeable and dedicated team of transplant co-ordinators.

Our unit is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Medical students and registrars rotate through our inpatient and outpatient departments and get a thorough exposure to gastroenterology. The training fellows spend two years in our unit and work under the close supervision of qualified gastroenterologists, as they hone their endoscopy skills and their ability to manage a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders. Our unit is one of the biggest and popular training units for GI fellows, from South Africa and other parts of the continent. We are involved in clinical and basic research and have supervised a number of Mmed students. The registrars and fellows do presentations at our journal clubs and multi-disciplinary meetings (MDT). We also take part in running the gastroenterology examinations which are held on a rotational basis by the different training units. We have representation at the South African Gastroenterology Society (SAGES), with three of our former heads of divisions Prof Issy Segal, Prof Reid Ally and Prof Adam Mahomed being former presidents of the society.

The patients that we see are referred locally from within the hospital, and from hospitals within our cluster and outside the province. We perform basic and advanced endoscopy and we always try to acquire the most current and state of the art endoscopic devices. This helps the consultants and fellows to be able to function at a comparable level with international endoscopists, in providing a good service for the patients. The clinical services offered are for general gastroenterology, and specialised clinics such as the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Clinic, liver and transplant clinic. We are also at a point where we are involving nurses in services such as the IBD clinic, with the aim of eventually having IBD nurse specialists. This will make our unit attractive for nurses to join us.