Profile
I am a Consultant ENT Surgeon in Manchester practising all aspects of adult and paediatric ENT. My particular areas of interest are the surgical management of benign and malignant head and neck diseases, including thyroid and salivary gland surgery, as well as adult airway and voice surgery. My areas of particular interest in paediatric ENT are intracapsular tonsillectomy, also known as coblation tonsillectomy and pinnaplasty, which is the surgical treatment of prominent ears.
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My NHS practice is based at Wythenshawe Hospital which is part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. I have a weekly cancer clinic at The Christie and am a core member of The Christie Head and Neck Cancer MDT and Thyroid MDT.
After completing medical school in Sheffield with distinction I completed my surgical training in and around Manchester. To complete my training I was awarded a surgical fellowship at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where I was trained by senior surgeons from ENT, Maxillofacial and Plastic Surgery in advanced head and neck, facial plastic and airway surgery.
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I have enjoyed several leadership roles within the NHS as I feel that it's important to be in a position to help healthcare evolve and to ensure every member of the team works cohesively to deliver the best possible care for our patients. In the private sector I enjoy the fact that I have full control of the patient journey from first presentation and throughout treatment. I feel that the doctor patient relationship needs to be one of trust and I very much enjoy the process of really getting to know my patients.
Positions of responsibility
Speciality Lead, Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery as well as Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 2017-2023, for Wythenshawe, Trafford, Withington and Altrincham Hospitals, managing all inpatient, outpatient, elective and emergency care. This position allows me to work with senior decision makers throughout the region to improve care, drive change and allow for innovation and evolution.
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Chair, North West Shared Airway Group 2016-ongoing, managing patients with complex breathing problems from around the North of England and Wales. I lead a group that comprises ENT surgeons, Respiratory Physicians, Thoracic Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Speech and Language Therapists, Rheumatologists and Specialist Nurses. We receive referrals from throughout the North of England usually for patients with complex anatomy resulting in breathing problems.
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Chair, Manchester Safer Surgery Group 2016-18, working with doctors and nurses to improve patient safety during surgery. If there is a near miss or a major event in the operating theatre environment, our group take a deep dive to determine what changes we can put in place to better protect our patients in the future. Errors happen, but it is unforgivable not to learn from them. This is the ethos from which the group was founded in 2016.
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Examiner, The Royal College of Surgeons 2017-ongoing, setting the standard for new Consultants. The final exam to become a Consultant ENT Surgeon is the FRCS, or Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. We have to make sure all new consultants have the knowledge base to make them safe and effective consultants. I am part of a small group from across the UK who meet twice yearly to update and improve that examination so that its always up to date, relevant and quite rightly, challenging.
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Undergraduate lead, Wythenshawe Hospital 2016-ongoing, ensuring the next generation are well prepared for life as a doctor. I very much believe that as surgeons, we stand on the shoulder of giants. That means that for thousands of years we have learnt what works and what doesn't. All of that learning has meant that we are where we are, in a technological and academic surge point. Getting medical students ready to take that baton in the future is critical to our moving forward and that is why I have been undergraduate lead for our department ever since I first became a Consultant and why I will always have a role within the medical school.
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Outside of work
I am a family man, married with 2 young daughters and a cockapoo called Molly.
I am a figurative painter and have taught life drawing to university students. My aim in the next 10 years is to start exhibiting my work again.
I am a fitness enthusiast as I believe that a healthy mind requires a healthy body, I am always on the lookout for the next challenge whether it's a hike, a triathlon or a run, I'm up for it.
My ideal evening involves a house full of friends, going to see live music or dining with good company.
My ideal holiday includes family, friends and sport.
Charitable work
I set up MENTORS (Manchester ENT Oncology Recovery Support) in 2018 to support those affected by Head and Neck Cancer in Manchester and Cheshire.
We have fundraisers in order to create a community for patients who are going through or have been through treatment.
We know that some patients have excellent support from family and friends but we feel that no one should travel this path alone and that there is only so much that we can do in the clinical environment.
If you'd like to know more, we have a website that you can visit if you click the link below.
Blog
American Head and Neck Society
July 2023, Montreal
This year the American Head and Neck Society ventured North into Quebec for it's 11th meeting as an International organisation and it's 25th anniversary since it's inception as the meeting for head and neck surgeons in the US. The last time I attended was during my one month trainee to consultant gap, that time the location was Seattle. The Americans know how to put on a show. I enjoy the surgical management of carotid body tumours and paragangliomas, which are vascular and nerve sheath tumours of the carotid sheath. The image shows James Netterville of Nashville who has the largest volume series of carotid body tumours. I was lucky to share my experience with him and learn some neat techniques to access the parapharyngeal space without sacrificing sensation to the earlobe! There were also fantastic video sessions from the team from South Korea who have been pioneering the use of trans-oral robotic surgery.
World Congress on Thyroid Cancer
June 2023, London
The WCTC came to the UK for the first time since it's inception in 2009 with over 1,000 surgeons from 86 countries in attendance. It gave me a chance to reconnect with colleagues from across the globe, including my surgical fellowship family from Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital.
Whilst it is reassuring to know that we, in Manchester are getting things right with balancing caution against over-investigation and safety against over-intervention, there was a lot to learn.
Whilst not currently available the future hold some interesting developments in the world of thyroid treatment.
DNA sequencing of thyroid nodule aspiration may provide additional valuable information when determining the likelihood of cancer within a nodule, which thus guides when surgical intervention (and the degree of intervention) is appropriate.
The other technology which caught my interest was nodule ablation where, proven benign and compressive nodules are treated via a needle through the skin which destroys the nodule from inside causing it to shrink down and become less noticeable.
Watch this space.
1st Frontal Sinus Masterclass
November 2022, Karl Storz HQ
A credit to the organisational ability of my friends and colleagues Neil Tan (Cornwall) and Sam Leong (Liverpool) for bringing together a truly world class faculty including Rhinology Professors. Wormald from Adelaide, Tewfik from Montreal, Hopkins from London and Nair from New Zealand.
Safety in sinus surgery is of the utmost importance due to proximity to the orbit, brain and olfactory nerve. It is also important to employ techniques that minimise the requirement for revision surgery.
I was grateful to the team for the collaborative discussion and the chance to compare surgical notes with incredibly life-like sinus models in the home of sinus surgical equipment leaders Karl Storz in Berkshire.
Stryker were present demonstrating their excellent sinus navigation software which I feel will become a standard of practice when training in the close future.