Endoscopy and Gastroenterology in Dubai

Diagnostic endoscopy needs three things in one place: an endoscopist, an anaesthesia team able to sedate and monitor you, and a recovery area with someone watching you wake up. In a hospital that means an admission pathway. ELEMENTAL is a licensed day surgical centre, so the same requirements are met without one: you arrive prepared, the procedure is done under sedation, you recover under observation and go home the same day.

The practical difference is the day itself. There is no ward, no overnight stay and no waiting for a bed — and the appointment is a scheduled slot rather than a place in a queue.

Gastroscopy examines the oesophagus, stomach and the first part of the duodenum. It is the investigation for persistent reflux, difficulty swallowing, upper abdominal pain, unexplained nausea and suspected H. pylori. See gastroscopy.

Colonoscopy examines the whole colon, and it is both a diagnostic and a treatment procedure: where a polyp is found it can be removed in the same session and sent for histology. See colonoscopy.

Gastroenterology consultation comes first in most cases — it establishes whether endoscopy is the right investigation at all, and which one. See gastroenterology consultation.

Sedation is not only about comfort. An examination interrupted by discomfort is an examination cut short, and the parts least tolerated by an awake patient — a full pass around the colon, careful inspection behind folds — are exactly the parts where findings hide. Sedation buys the time to look properly.

What it requires in return: fasting as instructed, an assessment before the procedure, monitoring throughout, recovery under observation, and an adult to take you home. You do not drive, sign anything binding or return to work that day. These are conditions of the sedation, not clinic preference.

Procedures are performed on Olympus endoscopes with narrow-band imaging. NBI filters the illuminating light to wavelengths absorbed by haemoglobin, so mucosal vessel and surface patterns stand out against the surrounding tissue at the press of a button, without dye.

Why that matters to a patient rather than to a catalogue: the lesions that are easiest to miss are the flat ones, which do not protrude and can read as normal mucosa under plain white light. Enhanced imaging is what makes the pattern visible — and a lesion that is seen is a lesion that can be sampled or removed in the same session.

Some symptoms are worth investigating rather than watching. Bleeding from the bowel or in vomit, iron-deficiency anaemia without an obvious cause, unexplained weight loss, difficulty or pain on swallowing, reflux that persists despite treatment, and a change in bowel habit lasting more than a few weeks all warrant an appointment rather than another course of something from a pharmacy.

Family history changes the calculation too: colorectal cancer or polyps in a first-degree relative usually means screening starts earlier and repeats more often than for someone without it. When to start, and how often to repeat, is set at the consultation against your history rather than by a single number.

A gastroenterology consultation with a consultant is AED 750. Gastroscopy is quoted at AED 8,000 and colonoscopy at AED 9,000. The final figure depends on whether sedation is used, whether polyps are removed in the same session and whether tissue is sent for histology — decisions made by the gastroenterologist.

You receive a written estimate with a fixed price before the appointment is booked. ELEMENTAL works on a self-pay basis.

ELEMENTAL Day Surgical Center, 113 Jumeirah Street, Jumeirah 1, Dubai. DHA licence 5323888.

Procedures and consultations in this section are carried out by Dr. Ashwini Banerjee, Consultant Gastroenterologist (DHA licence 66338367-009), who holds a CCT in Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine and performs diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, including ERCP and endoscopic ultrasound.