58 Queen Square is a centre of excellence for cosmetic medicine, minor operations and consultations in Bristol and the South West of England
We provide the ultimate environment for consultants and patients. As soon as you walk through the door, you will know that you have come to the right place. Our attractive Georgian building has been tastefully decorated and furnished. We have created a stylish yet restful feel throughout the centre.
Our clinical facilities are outstanding. Our operating theatre carries huge benefits for surgeons – it has a ventilation system which provides 25 air charges per hour, more than any other minor operating theatre locally. This enables our surgeons to carry out a wider range of procedures, in particular, those involving implants.
Bristol Plastic Surgery is a partnership of consultant aesthetic plastic surgeons of international standing. They provide the full choice of cosmetic surgery procedures as well as a rapid access clinic for the diagnosis and treatment or skin cancer, minor benign moles and other simple skin growths. Bristol Plastic Surgery surgeons also have extensive experience in reconstructive plastic surgery.
It is with sadness that we inform you that Paul Townsend has died.
I first worked for ‘Mr Townsend’ (as he was called by everyone in Frenchay!) as an SHO in the mid 80’s. He was at the forefront of microsurgery, having developed and published the DCIA flap during his time with Ian Taylor in Australia and, for every micro case, he used his prized ‘Chinese forceps’, which he acquired on a visit to China when there were no micro instruments available in this country. His work saved many young motorcyclists from becoming amputees. I was also fortunate to be his registrar and I performed the bench research for my thesis in his micro lab (the old Frenchay burns theatre) where he developed a microsurgery practice facility, using the human placenta perfused with saline via a pump. During this time, ‘Mr Townsend’ served on BAPS council and on the SAC. He went on to become the lead clinician for Plastics and then the Director of Surgery for Frenchay.
When I returned to Bristol, I was delighted to have him as my senior colleague. He had a prodigious work rate and instituted the first Pigmented Lesion Clinic and supported ScaRF, the Skin cancer charity, from its inception. He was incredibly supportive and always a pleasure to work for and with. He was always fun and interested in what was happening. Paul (as I eventually was able to call him after much practice) had an excellent working relationship with his anaesthetist, Dr David Cochrane. Together in theatre, they were like Morecombe and Wise.
Paul worked with us in Bristol Plastic Surgery until a few months before his death from pancreatic cancer.
He leaves his wife, Mary and ‘his boys’ and their families. They were the focus of Paul’s life. He loved gardening in his spare time but tended to be accident prone where ladders were concerned and he had a passion for Bristol Rugby. Paul bore his illness with great fortitude and, only a few days before he died in hospital, whilst we were discussing his family tree, he said’ “I don’t mind the pain but I cann’t bear being fuzzy headed.”
Paul is very much missed.
Nigel Mercer
