Mr Alex Baker

Mr ADL Baker MB ChB, Dip Th, BSc (Hons), MSc, MRCS (Ed), FRCS (Tr & Orth)

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon & Spinal Specialist

It is only natural that people considering surgery or indeed any form of medical treatment should want to know something about the person treating them.

Mr Baker is a highly experienced and respected orthopaedic surgeon, who specialises in spinal surgery. He has twenty years experience in carrying out both emergency spinal surgery and elective (planned) procedures and has worked at a number of hospitals throughout the north of England, Scotland, the Middle East and North America including centres of excellence and specialist centres for spinal surgery. Mr Baker's current main hospital base is the Specialist Centre for Spinal Surgery and regional tertiary referral centre at Royal Preston Hospital. Mr Baker is a specialist advisor for the Government's Health Service Ombudsman and for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Mr Baker is an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons and has a keen interest in medical education. He teaches regularly on national and international courses training the next generation of spinal surgeons.

Alex is firmly committed to patient-centred care, in which individuals are fully informed and involved in every step of their treatment, he is a committed Christian and an ordained Minister in Secular Employment, in the Church of England.

Alex lives in Lancashire, with his wife and two young sons and enjoys sailing, skiing as well as keeping pigs and chickens! He is conversant in British Sign Language (level 2).

Qualifications

2010 – Certificate of Completion of Training Trauma & Orthopaedics

2009 – FRCS Trauma & Orthopaedics (Ed)

Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

(Inter-Collegiate Specialty Examination in Trauma and Orthopaedics)

2005 – MSc in Applied Biomechanics – University of Strathclyde

2002 – MRCS (Ed) – Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

1999 – MB ChB – Primary Medical Qualification from The University of Edinburgh Medical School

1997 – BSc Biochemistry –The University of Edinburgh Medical School

Experience

May 2011 – Current Consultant Orthopaedic Spinal Surgeon,

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Royal Preston Hospital

Working in the specialist centre for spinal surgery at Royal Preston Hospital Mr Baker is responsible for a wide range of spinal operations as well as emergency procedures within the regional trauma unit, serving a population base of 1.4 million.

May 2010 – 2011 Newcastle Spinal Fellowship

March – May 2010 EOCNA – North American Travelling Fellowship

Feb 2004 – May 2010 South East Scotland Orthopaedics and Trauma Training Rotation

Mr Baker undertook the majority of his training in the highly sought after and prestigious orthopaedic training programme based in Edinburgh Scotland. Working in centres of excellence and in district general hospitals provided both breadth and depth of experience.

Diseases, Medical Tests and Treatments

As a general rule if your back pain travels down your leg to below your knee (sciatica) it is more likely that you have a surgically treatable spinal problem. Back pain seldom requires surgery.

Like most, if not all, spinal surgeons the common procedures Mr Baker performs are:

• Surgery for trapped nerves - decompression, micro decompression, interlamina decompression, subarticular decompression, foramenotomy and laminectomy.
• Surgery for slipped discs - microdiscectomy and discectomy.

Mr Baker also undertakes cervical spinal surgery including:

• Anterior cervical decompression and fusion and cervical disc replacements.
• Spinal fusion procedures for trauma, instability, and deformity (scoliosis) correction.
• Spinal injections including epidural injection can be useful for diagnostic purposes and for the treatment of disc prolapse.

As a general rule if your back pain travels down your leg to below your knee (sciatica) it is more likely that you have a surgically treatable spinal problem. Back pain seldom requires surgery.

Mr Baker's interests include:

• spinal deformity (scoliosis surgery)
• back pain
• spondylosis (arthritis of the spine)
• spinal stenosis
• spondylolisthesis
• disc prolapse
• cervical disc prolapse
• coccydynia sciatica
• spinal tumours
• spinal trauma including fractures and many more.