David is a general surgeon working at John Hunter Hospital, Lake Macquarie Private Hospital and other public and private hospitals in the region.
For the last 3 years after becoming a general surgeon David undertook additional sub-specialist training with some of the best surgeons in Melbourne and Sydney, through the ANZHPA training program.
He graduated from this program first in Australasia with the Robert Padbury medal.
Although he completed medical school in Sydney at UNSW and early training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he, his wife and two beautiful daughters fell in love with Newcastle during 5 years of general surgical training and chose to return.
He trained at the Austin hospital in Melbourne, home to the country’s most prestigious liver transplant unit.
He learnt liver transplant and liver resection from Professor Robert Jones OAM (Director) and Professor Chris Christophi OAM (President of the Asia-Pacific HPB Association)
He trained in pancreatic surgery with A/Prof Mehrdad Nikfarjam (Victoria’s leading pancreas surgeon). At Westmead Hospital he then trained under Professor Arthur Richardson (President of the Australian and NZ HPB Association).
Outside of liver transplant, in the past 3 years he has performed approximately 90 Whipples procedures, 160 major liver resections including extended resections and vena cava resections.
He has been involved in ALPPS procedures (extended liver resections), major vascular resections and Australia’s 6th multivisceral transplant.
He strongly believes that patients in Newcastle deserve the same world class cancer care that they would receive in Sydney or Melbourne.
In the past 12 months he has written a book chapter on pancreatic cancer and started a major multi-centre randomised controlled trial in Newcastle.
The trial is in collaboration with experts from Peter Macallum Cancer Centre, Westmead and John Hunter Hospital.
The trial aims to improve perioperative health outcomes in cancer patients through prehabilitation (the process of enhancing an individual’s functional capacity to enable him or her to withstand a forthcoming stressor, e.g. major surgery).
He is driving a collaboration with the CSIRO and experts from Monash Health, Austin Health and influential Australian business executives to help improve cancer outcomes for patients well into the future.
He is constantly involved in teaching surgery at all levels.
Together with his team of highly qualified anaesthetists and allied health staff, he works to ensure the fastest possible return to home, return to function and return to life.
As a team, they offer complex liver and pancreas surgery as well as the full spectrum of laparoscopic general surgical operations including gallbladder, hiatus hernia, ventral and inguinal hernia, endoscopy etc.