About

Mr Peter Small is a senior consultant surgeon at Sunderland Royal Hospital with a specialist interest in bariatric and upper GI laparoscopic surgery.

• Trained in general surgery in Scotland spending his final years in Dundee. Dundee was a founding centre of laparoscopic surgery where he learned laparoscopic skills under the guidance of Prof Cuschieri, a UK pioneer of laparoscopic surgery.
• He was appointed to Sunderland Royal Hospital in 1998 where he introduced laparoscopic surgery for reflux disease and obesity surgery.
• Established a North of England NHS bariatric service at Sunderland which has grown to one of the largest NHS bariatric units in the country with 6 consultant surgeons.
• Member of BOMSS council since 2013.
• Chairman of the National Bariatric Surgery Register committee and is a keen promoter of data collection and analysis to identify good practice. The database now contains data from over 80,000 UK procedures.
• Guided the publication of the 2nd and 3rd NBSR UK Report.

Mr Small’s other honours include:

• Established one of the first Bariatric Fellowships in England which is recognised by Royal College of Surgeons of England. Fellows now work around the world.
• Visiting Professor for University of Sunderland, having guided studies in bariatric patient wellbeing. Resulted in PhD publication and papers from the university and hospital.
• The Sunderland team investigated and introduced OAGB/MGB to the UK. The team have published widely on bariatric surgery, contributing to books and training manuals in the UK.
• Training Courses are run regularly attracting international visiting surgeons and their teams.
• Retired recently from the Royal Naval Reserve Medical Service as a Surgeon Commander after 34 years.