Early diagnosis and treatment of bowel cancer

Consultant Colorectal Surgeon Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
Honorary Consultant Colorectal Surgeon Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham
Senior Lecturer in Colorectal Surgery University of Birmingham

Association of Coloproctology GB & I
Association of Surgeons
Colorectal Clinical Group of National Cancer Research Institute
Colorectal Cancer Surgical Subgroup of NCRI
Research and Audit Committee of Association of Coloproctology GB & I

Mr Simon Bach was appointed as Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Senior Lecturer at Birmingham University in 2007. Prior to this he had trained in Oxford, Melbourne, Manchester and Newcastle. His Doctorate in Medicine was awarded for research into new bowel cancer treatments at the Christie Hospital Manchester in 2000. He then became Lecturer in Surgery at Oxford University and a Specialist Registrar at the John Radcliffe Hospital. He was awarded a fellowship position as part of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Advanced Colorectal Training Program at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne in 2006 where he developed specialist skills in the use of laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery for treatment of bowel cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Since becoming a consultant Mr Bach has helped develop minimal access surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He introduced Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery (TES) for early rectal tumours so that selected patients may avoid radical surgery. He leads a national study to evaluate TEMS treatment for rectal cancer.  He has published work in leading scientific journals and won a several awards including the most outstanding contribution to the Tripartite (combined North American, UK and Australasian) colorectal congress in Boston 2008.

Mr Bach supervises a programme of laboratory research and sits on research committees for the National Cancer Research Institute and Association of Coloproctology.

I have a young family and enjoy sharing the outdoors with them. I grew up playing rugby but switched to cycling in my mid 20’s rather than risk accumulating further injury. I now cycle on the road with Solihull CC and enjoy the challenge of competing in mountain bike events such as Mountain Mayhem and the Kielder 100.