Practising at
Dr Bela Szebenyi
Consultant Rheumatologist
MD, FRCP
Specialises in
I am a medical doctor and specialist in rheumatology. I hold a substantive consultant position at the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundations Trust, looking after patients in Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Goole hospitals. My private practice is conducted at St. Hughes Hospital in Grimsby and the Spire Hospital in Hull. I am a recognised consultant by private insurance companies, such as AVIVA, AXA-PPP, BUPA, Simply Health, Vitality Health and WPA.
I qualified as a medical doctor in 1980 at the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. I managed my postgraduate training in rheumatology and in general (internal) medicine and have 25 years experience of practice at my university teaching hospital in Budapest. Since 2005, I have worked as a full-time NHS consultant in the United Kingdom.
I am an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, member of the British Medical Association and the British Society for Rheumatology and registered to the Medical Protection Society. The General Medical Council (GMC) provided a Licence to Practise for me in 2009. I have annual professional appraisals and the GMC have recently revalidated me until 2020.
I have educational and research links with the University of Bristol, where I conducted studies with Professor Paul Dieppe and Professor John Kirwan on osteoarthritis and with Professor Anthony Hollander on autologous chondrocyte implantation. Presently I developed collaborative works with the University of Manchester with Professor Ariane Herrick on nailfold capillar microscopy and the Southend University Hospital with Professor Bhaskar Dasgupta on giant cell arteritis. I have an interest in medical history and published papers on Richard Bright and Philip Hench.
Presently I teach trainee doctors and GP colleagues for rheumatology on a daily base. This activity is conducted through clinics, ward rounds, MDT meetings as well as regular lectures for GPs on actual problems in rheumatology, such as DMARDs and biologicals, local injection therapy, etc. I also teach medical students from Sheffield and Hull and York Universities during clinical sessions in Scunthorpe General Hospital. I regularly conduct postgraduate lectures in our Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby. My recent annual Grand Round lecture topic in October 2015 was gender differences in rheumatology, presenting and discussing patients with male lupus, female gout and female ankylosing spondylitis. Another educational activity is conducted at the bi-monthly audit meetings in the form of ‘Consultant Update’ type lectures. The last such presentation was held in January 2015 on Scleroderma and related Overlap Syndromes. I regularly take part at the Quality and Safety Meetings.
Treatment information
Some of the principal treatments carried out by Dr Bela Szebenyi at Spire include:
Rheumatology
Other treatments
- Diagnostic ultrasound
- Crystal analysis randomised controlled trials (RCTs)
- Nailfold capillaroscopy
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Important information about COVID-19 tests
COVID-19 testing or antibody tests are not available as a standalone service at Spire Hull and East Riding Hospital.
Additional information
Clinical interests
Connective tissue disease
Inflammatory rheumatic disorders
Rheumatoid arthritis
Soft tissue rheumatism
Special clinical interests: Vasculitis (giant cell arteries), autoimmune diseases (Lupus), crystal-induced arthropathies (gout), widespread pain syndromes (fibromyalgia), diagnostic ultrasound, nailfold capillaroscopy, crystal analysis.
Qualification and professional memberships
MD / Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary / 1980
Bachelor of Medicine
Professional memberships
Research and publications
From April 2005 onwards I have regularly taken part in the weekly clinical Postgraduate Meetings and Journal Club meetings of my relevant clinical placement and visit national and international conferences and workshops. Since my permanent appointment in 2007, I attend the weekly postgraduate Grand Round medical meetings at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital and take part at the weekly Journal Club discussions, multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings as well as monthly Audit and Quality and Safety meetings in the Hospital. I regularly attend the postgraduate research meetings at the Musculoskeletal Unit at the University of Leeds and the bi-monthly Regional Meetings in the Yorkshire area and also attend national and international conferences both in rheumatology and in general (internal) medicine.
Since 2007, I have continued my previous activity as a principal investigator for phase 2 and 3 randomised controlled trials and observational surveys under the umbrella of the musculoskeletal specialty group of the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Comprehensive Local Research Network (NEYNL-CLRN). Our local research Team consists of Debrah Bates, leader of the Research and Development Department as well as research nurses Carol Gray and Julie Browning. In recent years we completed three industrial and one portfolio trials, conduct four ongoing studies and prepare three new trials (Table-1). The four completed trials include the CAPRA-2 trial on modified-release Prednisone, a genetic biomarker study, a portfolio study on hand function in rheumatoid arthritis and an industrial trial comparing aTNF treatment and IL-6 inhibitor Tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis patients. The ongoing trials comprise a genetic study in RA (BRAGGSS), participation in the rheumatoid arthritis biological register (BSR-BR) and collecting polymyositis patients for the UK-Myonet study. We have recently started an industrial study on switching DMARDs-failure rheumatoid arthritis patients to Tocilizumab treatment (ACT-MOVE).
My newest research interest is giant cell arteritis (GCA) in collaboration with Professor Baskhar Dasgupta and colleagues at Southend University (YELLOW CARD trial) and nailfold capillaroscopy in chilblain lupus (NAIL-CAP trial) with the help of Professor Ariane Herrick and her Team at the University of Manchester. Our colleagues from the Leeds Biomedical Research Unit recently invited us to participate in an innovative new trial to evaluate synovitis and cartilage damage in active lupus patients (USEFUL trial).
Current NHS posts
Consultant Rheumatologist, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust
Personal profile
I have a wide range of interest in non medical material such as literature, art and languages. I read Latin and apart from my native Hungarian, I speak English, German and Russian. I am a classical music lover and play on the piano and classical guitar at an amateur level.
I like sports such as cycling and swimming and am a keen badminton and snooker player.
I have two adult children and live with my wife Andrea in Lincolnshire.
Contact information
| Telephone | 01482 672 444 |
| Website | http://humberside-rheumatology.uk/ |
| Private secretary | Adele Riches and Donna Smith |
| Private secretary telephone | 01482 672 470 |
| Private secretary email | adele.riches@spirehealthcare.com / donna.smith@spirehealthcare.com |