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St Mark's is a small, specialist hospital dealing with intestinal and colorectal disorders. It has a particular reputation for the surgical skill of its staff. Patients with inflammatory conditions, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, often benefit from a team approach by physician, surgeon and other specialities. Some patients suffer severe symptoms but without evidence of structural or metabolic disease, and their symptoms appear due to disorders of function which are hard to define.
The treatment of patients with emotional problems at St Mark's took on a new direction and effectiveness when Lady Juliet Bingley was appointed medical social worker in 1973. She had a flair for helping patients to cope with long-term disabling illness and for affirming the personality of patients with emotional problems, often dating from damaging factors in their background. She felt that she needed consultant help in certain cases. In 1979 an informal good-will arrangement was made with Dr Peter Schoenberg, consultant psychotherapist at University College Hospital, who visited St Mark's, voluntarily and unpaid, on a weekly basis to see patients. When he had to stop these visits due to other commitments, Alexis Brook accepted an invitation in 1985 to fulfil the same role.
Alexis had just retired from his consultant post at the Tavistock Clinic and he worked part-time for 9 years at St Mark's on an informal basis as an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist. Some temporary financial support was obtained initially from the King Edward Hospital Fund and later from the St Mark's Research Foundation after which his work was entirely voluntary. His contribution to the clinical work, his teaching and his attractive personality did much to establish the need for a Department of Psychological Medicine at the hospital, now regarded as an essential component of its work.
Alexis was a gentle, perceptive, person