Mr Alan Li

Mr Alan Li was educated in Oxford and qualified as a doctor in 1990 after graduating from the University of Bristol Medical School. His early training took him to Manchester as a Lecturer and to Leeds as a Surgical Trainee and the University Tutor in Surgery at Leeds. He was a Research Fellow for the Medical Research Council and the Royal College of Surgeons.

Having completed his training in Yorkshire and in Scotland, Alan obtained a travelling fellowship to the National Cancer Centre Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, to develop his surgical techniques in gastric cancer surgery.

This was followed by a prestigious one year position as the Senior Clinical Fellow at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, for Professor David Gotley, Professor Mark Smithers and Drs Ian Martin and Andrew Barbour. He developed his practice in pioneering thoracosopic and laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancer, surgery for reflux and hiatus hernia, as well as many other surgical conditions.

Alan gained an appointment as a Consultant Surgeon at Whiston and St Helen’s NHS Trust which he took upon his return to the UK in Feb 2007 with a specialist interest in keyhole surgery techniques. He then joined the Manchester Royal Infirmary as an Upper Gastro-Intestinal, Bariatric, Laparoscopic and General Surgeon later in 2007 whilst still holding an honorary contract in Merseyside.

Over the last 15 years, he has become the Senior Lead in Oesophago-Gastric (OG) Unit at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and has overseen a 10-fold increase in the number of OG cancer operations at the MRI, the development of a full minimally invasive (keyhole) oesophago-gastric cancer surgery service and the delivery of a comprehensive NHS bariatric service.

He is currently a senior oesophago-gastric and bariatric surgeon at Salford Royal Hospital with over 15 years of consultant experience and expertise, and a lead in cancer, reflux and bariatric surgery including complex revision operations.

Alan provides training and mentorship to many other surgeons and senior clinical fellows and will be continuing his robotic surgery training. Ultimately, he believes in an individualised and holistic approach to patient care and has empathy, experience and expertise to provide this.