General Medicine

Services

• Lipids & Lipid Disorders
• Hypertension
• Refsum’s Disease
• Severe Obesity Service

At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, a hypertension cardiovascular risk clinic with a dedicated specialist nurse and dietitian takes place on Monday mornings, and a lipid clinic with a dedicated specialist nurse takes place on Tuesday afternoons.

Consultant advice on an all-age basis is available for travel-related and tropical diseases.

Refsum’s Clinic

Adult Refsum’s Disease is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by retinitis pigmentosa (RP) with usually cerebellar ataxia, polyneuropathy, anosmia, hearing loss and bony abnormalities and is associated with high serum phytanic acid. Several of the clinical features are ameliorated by restriction of dietary phytanic acid intake.

The Refsums clinic based at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital is the only clinic of its kind in the UK. It was established two decades ago by Dr Gibberd at the Westminster Hospital and relocated to the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital and is now under the supervision of three consultants; lead clinican Dr Michael Feher (Consultant in Clinical Pharmacology), Dr Brian Gibberd (Honorary Consultant Neurologist) and Dr Tony Wierzbicki (Honorary Consultant Chemical Pathologist).

The multidisciplinary team also includes Claire Harley (Refsums Dietitian), Eleanor Baldwin (Refsums Research Dietitian), Mr Nigel Davies (Consultant Ophthalmologist), Dr S Davies (Consultant Cardiologist) and Dr Iain Mak (Consultant Neurophysiologist). The ‘Westminster Refsums Diet’ is used throughout the world.

Over the last 5 years there has been a research link with the Human Genome Project. The current research programme involving clinical genetic and dietetic aspects is based at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital, and is part of the European collaboration with centres in Oxford, Holland, Norway and Belgium.

Clinics are held fortnightly.

Referrals

• Dr MD Feher
• Dr A Wierzbicki
• T: 020 3315 8134

Specific Diet Enquires (Refsum’s Dietitians)

• Claire Harley
• Eleanor Baldwin
• T: 020 3315 8104

Clinics

Doctors