Dedicated services for Barrett’s esophagus—a survey and service assessment of provision in United Kingdom hospitals

Background: Specialist services in medicine are increasingly recognised as gold standard care, ingastroenterology, studies of Barrett’s esophagus (BE) suggest dedicated services show better adherence tosurveillance protocols and concomitant dysplasia detection. The aim of this study was to gain insight into theBE practice in UK hospitals.Methods: Adult endoscopy units in the UK were contacted via phone or email and asked to complete a9-question survey about their BE service.Results: Two hundred and sixty-five units (~95%) were contacted with a response rate of 61.9% (164/265),56.3% (85/151) reported a dedicated BE service. Having a dedicated BE service was associated with theuse of high-resolution white light (92.9% vs. 71.2%, P=0.001) and acetic acid (83.5% vs. 48.5%, Pand the availability of advanced endoscopic therapies such as radiofrequency ablation (43.5% vs. 19.7%,P=0.004). Trusts which reported a dedicated BE endoscopy service were more likely to have a dedicated BEclinic (52.9% vs. 16.7%, PConclusions: Dedicated services for BE are available in the UK and associated with quality indicators,work is needed to determine the efficacy and efficiency of this model of service.