Alistair Makin: Consultant Gastroenterologist in Cheshire

Training and experience

Dr Makin qualified from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, London in 1988. He completed his junior training in London and Gloucester and was awarded Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1991. He returned to London to work at Harefield Hospital and then on the Liver Unit at King’s College Hospital where he received extensive training in all aspects of liver disease including transplantation and acute liver failure. He was awarded a British Digestive Foundation Training Fellowship and completed his MD thesis on Alterations in Hepatic Blood Flow and Kupffer Cell Activation in the Pathogenesis of Toxic Hepatic Injury. This work has been published and presented at international meetings.

In 1996 he was appointed as Senior Registrar in Gastroenterology at Middlesex/UCH Hospital in London. During these 2 years he underwent intensive training in therapeutic endoscopy including ERCP, EUS and laser endoscopy and in both pancreatobiliary disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

He was later appointed as a consultant at Manchester Royal Infirmary where he currently takes referrals from the North West with complex pancreatic and biliary disease.  Dr Makin has a particular interest in the endoscopic management of both benign and malignant pancreatobiliary cases and he is actively involved in the management of complex inflammatory bowel disease.  He also has wide experience of immunosuppression and biological therapy with one of the largest treatment cohorts in the UK.  Dr Makin is a faculty member at The Mersey School of Endscopy where he regularly trains on colonoscopy and basic endoscopy courses.

Clinical interests

Dr Makin has a particular interest and expertise in both ERCP and endoscopic ultrasound, enabling diagnosis and treatment of pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer and diseases of the biliary tree. He has significant experience in the management of inflammatory bowel disease (both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease) with a particular interest in the use of immunosuppression and biological agents (Infliximab and Adalimumab).

Dr Makin holds a weekly specialist clinic for patients suffering from pancreatitis (recurrent acute and chronic). He also sees a large number of patients with cancers of the upper gastrointestinal tract, pancreas and biliary tree and works as part of a multi-disciplinary team managing all aspects of endoscopic diagnosis and therapy including endoscopic ultrasound with fine needle aspiration and ERCP. He runs an expanding inflammatory bowel disease practice specialising in the management of patients with complex Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. The practice uses a full range of immunosuppressive drugs and biological agents and also regularly undertakes endoscopic therapy in this group. He also sees new patients with general gastroenterological complaints. He regularly performs a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures.

Research interests

Dr Makin completed a research project in The Liver Unit at King’s College Hospital, London with work on acute liver failure. He has an active research interest in chronic pancreatitis, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Conditions and treatments

Dr Makin has a particular interest and expertise in both ERCP and endoscopic ultrasound, enabling diagnosis and treatment of pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer and diseases of the biliary tree. 

Conditions treated include:

Treatments offered:

• Endoscopy - diagnostic and therapeutic
• General gastroenterology
• Pancreato-biliary medicine
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Liver disease
• Nutrition
• Pancreatology
• Colonoscopy
• ERCP