Mr Tahir Ali, MB CHB MS FRCS

Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon »

St Peters Hospital

Consultant General & Vascular Surgeon

Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon Listing

The picture shows Consultant Mr Neil Browning, Adrian Moorhouse, with Consultants Mr Kieran Dawson and Mr Tahir Ali in the Hybrid Theatre.

On Friday 31st January, staff and visitors at St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey were joined by Adrian Moorhouse, former British Olympic swimmer, to open a cutting-edge operating theatre for vascular surgery. The addition of this new theatre is an important development for St Peter's as it becomes a major cardiovascular centre for the Surrey population and means a much wider range of procedures can be carried out at the Chertsey hospital.

The Hybrid Theatre is a lead lined, state-of-the-art theatre that enables complicated vascular surgery to be done in a minimally invasive way, allowing surgeons to work more quickly which helps to save lives and which is less traumatic for patients. Procedures such as Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) repairs can be carried out as key hole rather than open surgery, with real-time imaging equipment helping to guide surgical instruments through the blood vessels.

.Lead Consultant Kieran Dawson explains more: "The Hybrid Theatre is a major advance for our vascular surgery services, and it was great to mark this development at Friday's event. We are now one of the best performing Trusts in the country for vascular surgery, able to undertake a wide range of life-saving procedures such as complex aortic aneurysm repairs, as well as being the major player for vascular surgery in Surrey. The creation of this new theatre is a key step in the further development of our vascular services, and has helped us become a major screening site for AAAs in Surrey. This is a potentially life-saving test, which can detect aortic aneurysms at an early stage and is available to all men over the age of 65."

Local GP Gill McFarlane has particular praise for the new facilities which helped save her father's life when he suffered a ruptured aneurysm last autumn. We simply couldn't have had better care in the world, said Gill. The professionalism of the team, the unbelievable speed at which everything happened right down to the smallest detail, it was all amazing.

My Dad had suddenly become very unwell. When we got him to hospital the CT scan clearly showed that he had an aneurysm and it was leaking dangerously.

We got to the point when Mr Ali, the vascular consultant, said we had to get Dad to theatre right away as he was deteriorating fast. We knew his likelihood of recovery wasn't good, but the team were amazing even holding all the doors open for us as we rushed in to see him just before the op. We thought we were going in to say goodbye. As a GP I know that the old way of operating would not have worked and Dad simply wouldn't have made it. The new techniques that this theatre provides, the skills of the team and the speed at which they are able to work, that's what saved his life. Thank you.

Trust Medical Director, Dr David Fluck describes what the new theatre means for local services: "Added to our £2.5 million cardiac unit which opened last autumn, this means we can develop as a major cardiovascular centre for Surrey, offering life-saving treatment for a range of cardiovascular emergencies."

Consultant Paramedic and Director of Clinical Operations at South East Coast Ambulance Service Andy Newton added: "The developments at St Peter's including the introduction of the new Cardiac Unit are of great benefit for patients in the region. Our ambulance crews communicate closely with hospital staff to take certain cardiac patients directly to the new unit rather than to A&E so they can receive the specialist treatment they require more quickly." At the official opening on Friday Adrian Moorhouse, best known for winning a gold medal for 100m breaststroke at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, said he was honoured to be asked to attend: "During my career I've been asked to open many swimming pools, but I've never had my name associated with anything like this, so it's a real honour to be here today."

Mr Dawson concluded by adding: "I would like to thank Adrian and all our guests for coming to our opening event and to extend a very special thank you to our League of Friends at St Peter's Hospital, who generously donated our operating table."