Dermatology

Is one of the most varied of the physician specialties allowing options for seeing all age groups of patients with inflammatory, inherited, environmental, occupational or malignant skin disorders.

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Dermatology is the diagnosis and treatment of over 2,500 different skin disorders. The scope of skin conditions seen includes inflammatory diseases like psoriasis and eczema, genetic and autoimmune disorders such as bullous pemphigoid, and skin cancers like malignant melanomas. Skin disease can affect individuals of all ages from birth to old age, and therefore treatments are also varied and can be challenging.

Each Dermatology department has different strengths but features such as inpatient care of adults and children, outpatient general and specialist clinics, dermatological surgery, day treatment, phototherapy and patch testing.

The department of Dermatology at SASH prides itself on providing a high quality comprehensive dermatology service to patients referred to us. In addition all the team members are actively involved with teaching both undergraduates and postgraduates either by delivering lectures or in face to face consultations with patients in an outpatient setting. We are all very responsive to having students and/or other clinicians sit in our clinics and arrangements can be made through our secretaries.

In addition a quarterly GP forum is organised allowing local GPs to see patients and to discuss their management in ‘real’ life.
Our library at SASH contains a wealth of atlases on dermatological conditions as well as regularly receiving the JAAD – an international dermatology journal with both clinical cases as well as the latest research.

The team is made up of 3 consultant colleagues – Dr Sandeep Cliff, Irene Man, Mukesh Patel. We also have a team of nurses lead by Nwando Onugha, Cancer nurse specialists lead by Jane Woods and a fantastic team of secretaries who keep us all in check!

We are an enthusiastic team and welcome anyone who wishes to learn more dermatology.

Education and Clinical Teams

Dr Sivanie Sewell

Educational Lead

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Dr Sivanie Sewell BMedSci, BMBS, MRCP (UK), MRCP (Dermatology), MRCP (London) Dr Sewell graduated from The University of Nottingham Medical School in 2006. After postgraduate training in general medicine and obtaining Membership of the Royal College of Physicians UK, she completed specialist training in dermatology and she became a consultant dermatologist.

Having worked in London, she then took on a substantive consultant post at SASH. Dr Sewell is a consultant in general dermatology looking after patients with various skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis, and has a particular interest in the diagnosis and management of skin cancers and pre-cancerous lesions, and runs a twice-weekly dedicated skin cancer clinic.

She is also a trained skin surgeon and operates on various skin lesions including skin cancers and moles. She has been actively involved in teaching and research, and continues to participate in national and international conferences. Dr Sewell has won several awards for her presentations, and has co-authored the renowned Treatment of Skin Disease dermatology textbook.

Dr Sandeep Cliff

Clinical Lead

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Dr Sandeep Cliff MB BS BSc FRCP a Consultant Dermatologist at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust with particular interests in the diagnosis and management of all aspects of skin cancer including the treatment of acne scarring and laser treatment. He qualified in 1991 from University College and Middlesex Medical School. Having specialised in dermatology for over 15 years Dr Cliff is a member of the British Association of Dermatologists as well as being an honorary senior lecturer at St George’s Medical School in London. He is also the sub-dean of Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Dr Ben Mearns

Chief

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Dr Ben Mearns who joined SASH in 2007, is a consultant in acute medicine and a geriatrician. He is chief of medicine and responsible for leading the extensive number of services within the medicine division; ranging from the emergency department (A&E) and cardiology to therapies and pharmacy. He is passionate about patient engagement and the delivery of safe high quality care. He values the opportunity to hear from the people we care for and to ensure that their views are heard. He is a strong advocate of patient involvement in continuing to develop and improve the services we provide. Dr Mearns is a member of the SASH executive committee and an active member of the transformation guiding team. He is also a senior associate at the Nuffield Trust.

Dr Irene Man

Dr Mukesh Patel