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GI Clinic » Capsule Endoscopy

Private Capsule Endoscopy in London

The point of a capsule endoscopy is to look inside of your small bowel. It uses a miniature wireless camera to take pictures of your small bowel (also called the small intestine).

Also known as: video capsule endoscopy (VCE) (which is also known as a pillcam).

£2,355

What is Private Endoscopy?

The point of a capsule endoscopy is to look inside of your small bowel. It uses a miniature wireless camera to take pictures of your small bowel (also called the small intestine). The capsule used is the size of a large vitamin tablet and contains a camera, a light source, and a radio transmitter. This tiny camera will take pictures of your digestive tract and bowel as it travels through your body and send pictures wirelessly to a data recorder that you wear on your waist. The small bowel is the middle 4 metres of your gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract is 6 metres long and runs from the mouth to the back passage.

What conditions can be diagnosed using a capsule endoscopy?

Common reasons for having a small bowel capsule endoscopy include:

  • Looking for unexplained or suspected blood loss.
  • Diagnosing inflammation of the small bowel (e.g., Crohn’s Disease)
  • Clarifying imaging tests. MRI or CT scans may have coincidentally shown abnormality and a capsule may help make a diagnosis.
  • Diagnosing poor blood supply to the small bowel.
  • Looking for polyps and tumours in the small bowel.
  • Looking for signs of coeliac disease.
  • Investigating iron deficiency anaemia where no gastric or colonic cause has been found and in patients with chronic diarrhoea.

Main advantages of small bowel capsule endoscopy are:

  • It is painless – you just swallow the capsule and get on with your day.
  • It can visualise 4 metres of the small bowel, which is difficult with conventional endoscopy (gastroscopy or colonoscopy).

Very rarely the capsule can become lodged in other parts of the gastrointestinal tract (e.g., the oesophagus or colon), but overall, retention occurs only in approximately 1% of cases. To minimise the risk of the video capsule becoming stuck in the gastrointestinal tract, we may ask patients to swallow a dissolvable dummy capsule (also called a patency capsule) as a “trial run” beforehand: if the capsule becomes stuck, it will dissolve.

How Much Does A Private Capsule Endoscopy Cost?

£2,355

Private Capsule Endoscopy costs £2,355 at St John & St Elizabeth Hospital.

Hospital Fee Guaranteed. The price shown includes all costs associated with your treatment, from admission to discharge. Doesn’t include surgeon or anaesthetist fee.

Our hospital fee is guaranteed at the price quoted and valid for one month from the date issued, subject to pre-assessment.

How to pay for your treatment

If you’re… paying for yourself

Did you know you don’t need private medical insurance to come to St John & St Elizabeth Hospital? As a self-pay patient, you can access safe, outstanding quality health care at times to suit you.

For scans and tests, as well as to see most consultants, you’ll still need to be referred by a medical professional like your GP, but as a self-pay patient, the process is more straightforward. You won’t need authorisation from an insurance provider, and you’ll have greater choice of consultant and appointment times.

If you’re… insured

St John & St Elizabeth Hospital is approved by all major medical insurance companies. If you have a personal private health insurance policy, or your company provide it for you, you can use it to pay for your care from your initial consultation through to treatment, surgery and aftercare such as physiotherapy. Not all private health insurance plans cover the same things. It’s very important to check exactly what you are covered for with your insurance provider.

Endoscopy procedure explained – Watch our video

In this video, Mr Romi Navaratnam, Hernia and GI surgeon, guides you through how an endoscopy procedure is performed. From the pre-procedure preparations at home, what happens on the day and your aftercare treatment plan.

Frequently Asked Questions about Private Capsule Endoscopy