Personal Profile
I have been in private practice at The Cavell and Kings Oak Hospitals since 1995, running a busy mainly upper gastrointestinal, general and laparoscopic service. Since retiring from the NHS in May 2020, I have limited this work to a busy intermediate general surgery and upper GI endoscopy practice. My main areas of expertise remain in the field of upper GI surgery and endoscopy, with a special interest in abdominal hernia, and I expect to remain in clinical practice for many years to come.
I spend all day at Cavell Hospital every Wednesday, operating and seeing patients in clinic. I also have a weekly gastroscopy list earlier in the week. I have a Secretary on site every day to take calls and e-mails. I do not run an emergency surgery clinic.
I qualified from Edinburgh University, and spent my training years in Edinburgh, and then London, initially at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith, then the West Middlesex University Hospital from where I passed my Fellowship exams in 1983. Following a couple of years working in East Surry Hospital as Surgical Registrar, I moved into a research post with the Royal Navy in Haslar, Portsmouth, where I spent two very enjoyable years working towards a thesis on gastro-oesophageal reflux. Here I also learnt the finer points of endoscopy and ERCP.
I moved back to London in 1988 to work as Surgical Registrar, then Senior Registrar on the Barts circuit, working at The Homerton, Whipps Cross and North Middlesex Hospitals, as well as a year at The Royal Hospital of St Bartholomew acting up as Consultant Upper GI/laparoscopic Surgeon and Assistant Director to the Professorial Surgical Unit.
I was appointed to the North Middlesex University Hospital as Consultant General Surgeon with an interest in laparoscopic and upper GI surgery in 1995 and I was also given an Honorary title of Senior Lecturer to University College London.
I spent the first several years of my consultant practice pursuing my upper GI, laparoscopic and ERCP practice. During this time, I also undertook managerial responsibilities sequentially as Associate Medical Director, then Divisional Director.
In 2003 NHS England moved all oesophago-gastric cancer work to Central London Teaching Hospitals, and I was fortunate to be able to found, and develop the Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Unit at University College London.
Following 6 years of part-time central London NHS work, I returned full time to North Middlesex University Hospital as Undergraduate Sub-Dean, and Director of Medical Education, running Final Examinations for UCL, and managing students from an International Medical School as well as the full-time clinical work.
In 2011 I was promoted to Professor of Surgery at St Georges International University, and took on the UK Associate Chair of Surgery position, overseeing all undergraduate surgical education at 14 hospitals in England, and I remain in this position now with recent responsibility for organising virtual teaching for over 100 students over a 5 month period.
In 2015 I took on the role of Cancer Lead for my Trust, and chaired our Cancer Board for 5 years.
I have enjoyed every minute of it.
