DR Ben Griffith

Dr Griffiths is the Director of Education and Training ASGBI, and spent just under 9 years at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, one of the most successful UK hospitals with sequential ‘Outstanding’ CQC ratings both in the Surgical Directorate and Overall.

He was made Head of Department in 2016 and helped position the colorectal department as one of the strongest in the UK in both elective and emergency services. One of his proudest leadership achievements was moving all elective surgery to cold sites (2 different hospital sites) during the 1^st wave of the covid-19 pandemic. This enabled his team to continue all colorectal/anal cancer surgery and significant volumes of urgent benign surgery, where they continued to support emergency surgery and major trauma at the original site. Dr Griffiths has developed into a nationally respected colorectal surgeon and a key opinion leader in advanced/recurrent rectal cancer, anal cancer and complex abdominal wall reconstruction. He was responsible for establishing and developing the Newcastle Advanced and Recurrent Cancer (NARC) services, from scratch, to a level where they were discussing 60-80 tertiary referrals via their specialist MDT per year and operating on 40 major cases. He introduced new operations to Newcastle (high sacrectomy, extended pelvic sidewall excision, robotic total pelvic exenteration) and used new technology to improve outcomes and surgical precision (navigation). They benchmarked their outcomes by working in expert groups (PelvEx, IMPACT, UKPEN) and collaborating with others to further develop services. This work requires multi-team surgical input and working with other specialities is now a routine part of his practice.

Alongside this service he worked in one of the largest anal cancer services in the UK (circa 100 cases per year, around 10% requiring major surgery). He had a major benign practice in complex abdominal wall reconstruction (CAWR) and pre-covid-19 performed 15-25 reconstructions per year, 90% of these were tertiary. He introduced a botulinum toxin program and preoperative pneumoperitoneum (PPP) for these patients and is regularly invited to teach, advise and lecture throughout Europe in this area of practice. He has been joint lead on the largest European CAWR course for 8 years and has trained approximately 450 European consultant surgeons in advanced CAWR techniques. His reputation in the North has led to the majority of his work being tertiary referrals or referrals from colleagues, particularly in the area of complex pelvic surgery, benign or malignant and to include complex fistula-in-ano and reconstructive surgery. Dr Griffiths has published over 60 articles and is a regularly invited speaker across Europe and beyond.