Each of the four specialists at the Surrey Foot and Ankle Clinic is a fully qualified doctor and orthopaedic surgeon (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons). We have specially trained to apply these skills to care of the foot and ankle and this represents practically all of our non-emergency work. From medical school to consultant practice, this training takes ten to twelve years. Since we specialise in the same discipline, we can support each other’s work and share our expertise, much to the advantage of our patients.
Our busy NHS practices involve foot and ankle orthopaedic surgical care plus treatment of injuries and fractures via the hospitals’ 24 hour on-call rotas. Orthopaedic surgeons, unlike non-medically qualified podiatric surgeons, are fully qualified trauma surgeons so we have generic skills and experience in treatment of injuries to all the body’s bones and joints. This greatly enhances our ability to deal with difficult non-injury cases. Many medical conditions can manifest first in the foot. A good understanding of any patient’s general health is, in our view, so important that the clinician in charge of surgery to the bones, joints and tendons of the foot should be a qualified doctor.
All of the consultants in our Clinic are active in developing and teaching orthopaedic foot and ankle surgery. We regularly attend both national and international conferences, contributing directly to many. Our patients benefit from the very latest thinking and recognised techniques.
MR PAUL J HALLIWELL
Paul qualified from Guy’s Hospital Medical School in 1989. He trained in surgery at Guy’s, St. Thomas’, John Radcliffe (Oxford), and the Royal Surrey (Guildford) Hospitals. His orthopaedic Higher Surgical Training was on the South West Thames (SWT) programme based at St. George’s Hospital, London. This was supplemented by two Fellowships, in Trauma and Joint Reconstruction in Toronto and in Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Both provided special training in problems of the foot and ankle, particularly when the result of injury or abnormal development.
Paul was appointed as orthopaedic consultant with a special interest in problems of the foot and ankle at the Royal Surrey County NHS Trust in 2001. As well as being a busy surgeon, Paul has a commitment to training the next generation of surgeons. He teaches surgical skills for the Royal College of Surgeons and surgery of the foot and ankle at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.
Paul is a member of the British Orthopaedic Association and the British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society.