Personal Profile
Mr Paul Halliwell is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, specialising in problems and injuries of the foot and ankle in adults and in children. He is President-elect of the British Foot & Ankle Society (BOFAS). Paul has a particular interest in treatment of damage to, or arthritis of, the ankle joint, regularly performing complex reconstructions which include 20-30 ankle joint replacements per year. He is a Principal Investigator on a national ankle replacement study, Total Ankle Replacement Versus Arthrodesis (TARVA).
Training and Appointment
Having qualified from Guy's Hospital in 1988, Mr Halliwell was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, Surrey in 2001. His higher surgical training was on the South West Thames Programme, and also included fellowships in Toronto, Canada and at Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London. This combination of training lead to a particular interest in total ankle joint replacement (TAR), which he began in 2003 and continues to perform on a frequent basis as one of the few high-volume ankle replacement surgeons in the UK.
Mr Halliwell intercalated a BSc degree in the psychology of medicine and neuropsychology during his medical school training, as a result of an enduring interest in the relationship between both areas.
He has a reputation for attending to his patients’ concerns at a “human” level and for his empathetic approach. This passion for treating patients as people is ever-present when he teaches, whether students, trainee doctors or peers.
Publications, lectures and teaching
Mr Halliwell is a committed trainer, contributing regularly to national programmes. He organises and teaches on national and international surgical training courses (including in total ankle replacement) and will be President of his national speciality body, the British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (BOFAS) during 2022-23.
Paul is a former member of the Education Committee, where as Director he helped develop the nationally-recognised Principles of Foot and Ankle Surgery course and was Chairman of the BOFAS Outcomes Committee from 2014 to 2021, developing a Registry to monitor and improve the outcomes of surgical treatments. In addition, he was an FRCS (Tr & Orth) examiner for five years until 2016.
Mr Halliwell has published work on varied subjects including tibial fractures, hand injuries, ankle arthritis networks and computerised surgical data collection. He has won prizes for his work on brain development (intercalated BSc), ankle fractures, spine injuries and fractures of the acetabulum.
Current practice
Mr Halliwell combines his NHS work with private practice and offers a range of foot and ankle medical procedures, including ankle replacement, ankle joint fusion and minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery.
Clinical interests
- Achilles repair or reconstruction
- Ankle arthroscopy
- Ankle fusion
- Ankle ligament repair
- Ankle sprain
- Arthritis (foot)
- Arthritis (ankle)
- Bunions (hallux valgus) and bunion surgery
- Flat foot correction
- Foot and ankle surgery
- Foot pain
- Foot sprains
- Forefoot reconstructive surgery
- Hindfoot osteotomy
- Midfoot osteotomy
- Toe surgery.
Professional memberships
- British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society
- British Medical Association
- British Orthopaedic Association
- Royal College of Surgeons
Current NHS Post
- Royal Surrey County Hospital
