Bsc (1st Hons), MBBS (Distinction), MSc (Distinction), MRCS, DOHNS, FRCS (ORL-HNS)
"Working at Spire hospitals allows me to offer a first class treatment to my patients. I enjoy working in the collaborative, family feeling, welcoming atmosphere at Spire hospitals."
I am a multiple prize winning Consultant ENT/Head and Neck Surgeon based in Kent and the South East of England with over 10 years' surgical experience. I specialise in head and neck and rhinology surgery. Specific interests include thyroid, parathyroid, salivary glands, voice and airway surgery as well as functional nasal surgery including endoscopic sinus surgery, septoplasty, turbinate surgery and eustachian tube balloon dilation. I also have an interest in general paediatric ENT surgery and surgery for the throat, tonsils, snoring and sleep apnoea using the less invasive coblation technique for tonsils removal.
To date, over a 13 years' ENT experience, I have performed/trained a trainee or assisted in over 4,500 ENT operations, the vast majority which I have performed myself.
In terms of general/paediatric ENT, I have performed/trained a trainee/assisted or observed over 400 tonsillectomies, 140 adenotonsillectomies, 85 adenoidectomy and 200 myringotomy and grommets insertions. I have performed over 60 robotic operations.
In terms of head and neck surgery, I have performed/trained a trainee/assisted or observed 420 thyroid operations, 75 parathyroidectomies, 220 neck dissections, >100 parotidectomies, >40 submandibular/ sublingual salivary glands surgery and in excess of 500 microlaryngoscopies/ panendoscopies including laser and BotoxĀ® injections of the cricopharyngeus and both endoscopic and external pharyngeal pouch surgery.
In terms of rhinology surgery, I have performed over 230 endoscopic sinus surgery including frontal balloon sinuplasty, > 200 nasal septal surgery, inferior turbinate surgery and >15 eustachian tube balloon dilations.
I graduated from the University of London and completed an intercalated BSc at the University of Leeds in Anatomy, achieving distinctions and first class grades in all of my six undergraduate years. I developed an early interest in ear, nose and throat (ENT) / head and neck surgery and pursued that interest as a medical student and subsequently won the annual Sydney Scott and Henry Silverman ENT medical student prize.
After graduating, I completed a postgraduate Masterās Degree with Distinction in International Health Management and Leadership from the University of Sheffield. I undertook my postgraduate ENT training in hospitals in Cambridge, London and across the Kent, Surrey and Sussex deanery culminating in the completion of a prestigious nationally appointed fellowship at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals in head and neck, thyroid, parathyroid and robotic surgery.
I have had tertiary level paediatric ENT training at Great Ormond Street and Evelina London children's hospitals where I learnt the coblation technique. I enjoy treating the breadth of general adult and paediatric ear, nose and throat conditions. I am an expert in the field of head and neck surgery, thyroid surgery, parathyroid surgery, minimal access trans-oral robotic, laser surgery and functional nose surgery. I set up the minimal access trans-oral robotic surgery in my NHS practice and I am able to offer that to my private patients.
I am the ENT surgery specialist advisor for the medical advisory committee (MAC) in two of the private hospitals in Kent. I am the head and neck robotic surgery lead in my NHS trust.
I am very proud of starting the Kent and Medway Medical School multidisciplinary robotic surgery student selected component for which I am a supervisor and receive excellent feedback regularly. I am the medical students year three and four research project supervisor in robotic surgery assessing the outcomes of head and neck robotic surgery in my NHS practice.
I have completed a prestigious nationally appointed fellowship at Guyās and St Thomasā Hospitals where I further developed my subspecialty interest in head and neck cancer and benign surgery, thyroid and parathyroid surgery, including robotic surgery. I commenced my consultant post at East Kent Hospitals in 2020. I have led and established the Head and Neck Robotic Programme at the Trust. I also helped set up the local anaesthetic ENT procedures service at my trust. I seek excellence in what I do for my patients and go the extra mile for their care. I aim to provide a personalised patient care of the highest quality at their time of need.
I am academically involved in the field of research in ENT. I have published over 10 papers in peer reviewed journals and I am frequently invited to give lectures and as a faculty in courses. I have won many postgraduate prizes including the prestigious annual ENT Masterclass International Conference silver medal for a research project that contributed to national guidelines. I have visited many international centres including spending time in Australia to gain further knowledge and experience. I have had specialist head and neck robotic training in the UK, France and Belgium.
Some of the principal treatments carried out by Mr Ali Al-lami at Spire include:
Ear Nose and Throat (ENT)
Other treatments
MBBS (Distinction) / Barts & The London, University of London / 2009
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
MBBS is a degree given to allow the practice of medicine and surgery
British Association of Endocrine & Thyroid Surgeons
General Medical Council
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Head & neck robotic surgery lead after setting up this new service at my local NHS trust.
Surgeons use £1.5million robot for first operation on Folkestone patient with throat cancer
June 2021
Free tissue transfer in head and neck reconstruction: 100 consecutive cases.
Utility of an intraoperative ultrasound in lateral approach mini-parathyroidectomy with discordant imaging.
Ensuring patient safety when implementing new diagnostic pathway for thyroid nodules.
A study evaluating the effects of throat packs during nasal surgery: a randomized controlled trial.
East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust
I am proud of what I have achieved in my life at both the personal and family level. I left my war-zone home country on my own at the age of 14 to pursue my career aspiration to become a doctor. This has taught me to work very hard both to achieve my personal ambitions as well as to do my best for my patients, treating them as one of my family members in their time of need.
I am a proud family man supporting my wife and fathering my two young life loving daughters. I enjoy travelling, swimming, cycling with friends and baking cakes with my wife and daughters, usually for the benefit of the staff of the hospitals I work at.