Dr Palani Babu is a Consultant Physician and Gastroenterologist at HMT St Hugh’s Hospital in Grimsby. He has been a consultant since 2003 and specialises in liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease and nutrition, alongside the full range of upper and lower digestive symptoms. He performs diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy and is a full-time consultant at Lincoln County Hospital.

Digestive symptoms are frustrating because they are so common and so vague. Indigestion, bloating, a change in bowel habit, tiredness with abnormal blood results and no explanation. Most of it turns out to be manageable, but the range of possible causes is wide enough that guessing is not a good strategy. A gastroenterologist’s job is to narrow it down efficiently, using the right test rather than every test, and to say clearly what is going on.

About Dr Babu

Dr Babu qualified from Madras University in India in 1991 and completed his postgraduate training in general medicine there. He then trained comprehensively in general medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology in Yorkshire.

He has been a full-time consultant in gastroenterology since 2003, moving to Lincoln in 2012 from Scarborough, and is a consultant at Lincoln County Hospital.

His special interests are liver disease and hepatobiliary medicine, inflammatory bowel disease and nutrition. He also sees patients with dyspepsia, heartburn and the full range of upper and lower gastrointestinal problems, and treats conditions affecting the pancreas, along with irritable bowel syndrome. He is a core member of the upper gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary multidisciplinary team.

He performs diagnostic and therapeutic upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy, including gastroscopy, colonoscopy, polypectomy and endoscopic mucosal resection, dilatation, treatment of bleeding ulcers and varices, ERCP and capsule endoscopy.

Dr Babu has a longstanding interest in medical education and has held posts as Royal College Tutor, Foundation Training Programme Director, Lead for Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer and Service Lead for Medicine and Endoscopy.

GMC number 4466602

Languages English, Tamil (fluent), Hindi (conversational)

Areas of expertise

Liver and hepatobiliary

• Abnormal liver function tests and raised liver enzymes
• Fatty liver disease
• Cirrhosis
• Hepatitis
• Gallstones and biliary problems
• Jaundice
• Liver cancer assessment and investigation

Inflammatory bowel disease

• Crohn’s disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• IBD monitoring and management
• Persistent diarrhoea

Upper digestive symptoms

• Indigestion and dyspepsia
• Heartburn and acid reflux
• Difficulty swallowing
• Stomach ulcers
• Helicobacter pylori
• Nausea and upper abdominal pain

Lower digestive symptoms

• Change in bowel habit
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Bloating and abdominal pain
• Rectal bleeding
• Constipation and diarrhoea
• Bowel polyps
• Bowel cancer assessment and investigation

Pancreas and nutrition

• Pancreatic conditions
• Nutritional assessment and management
• Unexplained weight loss
• Iron deficiency and anaemia investigation
• Coeliac disease