Mr Clifford W Barlow

I have performed over 5,000 cardiac operations in Southampton as a primary surgeon since my appointment as a Consultant Cardiac Surgeon in 2000. I perform all aspects of adult cardiac surgery, with the exception of transplantation, as there is no regional transplant unit here. The majority of procedures involve coronary bypass grafting, but I also perform aortic and mitral valve replacements, mitral valve repairs and major thoracic aortic surgery. I have a particular interest in redo-procedures and surgery for atrial fibrillation.

My experience and results at Spire Southampton Hospital are available for scrutiny on the Spire Southampton Hospital website (www.spirehealthcare.com). I have performed over 1,000 cardiac procedures at this hospital with a mortality rate less than 0.25% for all cases - despite a varied case mix. The outcomes for the Cardiac Surgical Group at Spire Southampton are especially outstanding considering the surgical and operative risk profiles of patients are equivalent to many much larger cardiac units in the United Kingdom. The risk adjusted surgical outcome data for myself and the Cardiac Surgical Group are consistently updated on the Spire Southampton website.

My personal operative results, and those of the Cardiac Unit at UHS, are available for public scrutiny on the website of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland (www.scts.org). My personal operative outcomes, and those of the cardiac unit at UHS, have consistently been significantly better than expected when adjusted for surgical and operative risk. They compare very favourably with other cardiac units in the United Kingdom.

I am a lead Examiner for the final FRCS (Cardiothoracic) Intercollegiate examination. In addition, I am on both the standard setting and question writing groups for this examination. I am the Unit representative for UHS at the Society for cardiothoracic surgery of the United Kingdom and Ireland. I am also Regional Representative for South Central England for Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons as well as Cardiothoracic Representative on the local Professional Affairs Board.

I have a longstanding dedication to teaching and training junior surgeons in cardiothoracic surgery. I established a permanent training laboratory at UHS and have run several wet-lab sessions. I am currently Clinical and Educational Supervisor for all Core Surgical and Foundation Year trainees in cardiothoracic surgery at UHS.

I have run the clinical outcome audit database at UHS for the last 10 years. I am currently also responsible for Cardiothoracic Outcome data at Spire Southampton Hospital. I am Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgical liaison with the UHS Clinical Governance committee. I have a longstanding involvement in clinical research in many aspects of cardiac surgery and physiology. This has continued since I completed my doctoral thesis (DPhil) at the University of Oxford in 1994. 

I received my MBBCh at the Medical School of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1985. Following initial training in general surgery there and at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto I came to the United Kingdom in 1991. In 1994 I completed my doctoral research thesis on aspects of exercise in Heart Failure at the University of Oxford (DPhil). I trained in cardiothoracic surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and Papworth Hospital, Cambridge between 1994 and 1999. I spent 18 months as a Cardiothoracic Transplant Fellow at Stanford University, California before being appointed as a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust (UHS) in 2000. In 2007 I discontinued my Thoracic Surgical Practice to focus on adult cardiac surgery.

Member of Medical Advisory Committee for Spire Southampton Hospital.