David Khoo is a consultant general surgeon working at Queen's Hospital, Romford. He has a practice at the Spire Hartswood Hospital and the Nuffield Hospital in Brentwood. He was appointed a consultant in 1996 at Oldchurch and Harold Wood Hospitals (now replaced by Queen's Hospital, one of the hospitals of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust). He has a very wide background in training which included all areas of general surgery which included specialties like vascular, breast and colorectal surgery. However, the area of laparoscopic surgery and surgery of the gut are his main interests. He was one of the first to take up laparoscopic surgery; he was doing as much as possible laparoscopically in the pioneering days of laparoscopy in the UK at around 1991, including appendicectomy, colon resection, hernia repair and gallbladder surgery. He now concentrates his time on the surgery of the gut in particular the foregut (upper gastrointestinal surgery). During his time, he has had a big role in the development of the local services for laparoscopic surgery, and advanced complex laparoscopic surgery. He has also been a main force in the development of gastrointestinal diagnostic services such as the rectal bleeding clinics. Much of his work involves the most difficult forms of laparoscopic surgery ie oesophagogastrectomy, hiatal hernia and reflux surgery, splenectomy, colon resection and biliary surgery in particular. He has published on subjects such as laparoscopic common bile duct exploration for gallstones and Barrett’s oesophagus. He has a particular interest in the surgery of cancer. He treats many patients for colorectal and upper GI cancer. BHR is a designated upper GI cancer centre and he is the lead for this specialty and the lead for this tumour group for the North East Thames Cancer Network. He is also joint Pathway Director for Upper GI Cancer in then new London Cancer. Queens Hospital is now a designated centre for oesophagogastric cancer surgery in London Cancer. He undertakes bariatric operations at the Brentwood Nuffield Hospital and at the Spire Hartswood. Although the Spire Hartswood Hospital is not a training hospital, he is known for training of junior surgeons and received the prestigious “Silver Scalpel” award in 2009. He has an interest in the efficient and rapid diagnosis of gastrointestinal conditions and the appropriate use of investigations such as endoscopy.