Mr Andrew (Drew) Fleming MBChB (Cape Town), FRCS (Edinburgh), CS (SA) Plast.
Consultant Plastic Surgeon

I am a fully qualified Plastic Surgeon with extensive experience and expertise in aesthetic (cosmetic), hand and reconstructive surgery. My practice is based in south west London. My National Health Service Consultant appointment is with the St Georges NHS University Trust. I was clinical director of the Plastic Surgery department for 7 years and where I then became Clinical Director of Surgery and latterly Divisional Chair of Surgery, Neurosciences Theatres and Anaesthetics.

My NHS reconstructive practice is now almost entirely involved with complex hand surgery and my special interest is in children born with hand differences. My private practice involves a lovely mix of aesthetic (or cosmetic) surgery, hand surgery and a lot of skin cancer and other reconstructive surgery.

I am fully qualified and accredited with a variety of professional bodies (click on the links below, and I am on the specialist register of the GMC No.3398223.

This website will give you information about the procedures and surgery I undertake, along with my practice details should you wish to book an appointment.

About Andrew Fleming

I grew up in Zimbabwe and spent my early medical training years in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. After studying medicine at the world-renowned University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, I worked as a General Surgeon in Zimbabwe for eight years before returning to Cape Town, where I qualified further in General Surgery, Trauma Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. After completing a Fellowship in Hand Surgery in the Orthopaedic Department at the University of Cape Town, I was a Visiting Scientist with the Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Emory University in Atlanta and Washington State University in Seattle, U.S.A. On my arrival in the UK in 1998, I super-specialised in Congenital Hand Surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital and studied advanced adult hand surgery at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and the Windsor Hand Clinic. At this time I was awarded a Pulvertaft Hand Fellowship by the British Society for Surgery of the Hand. I then went on to complete an Aesthetic (Cosmetic) Fellowship at the Wellington Hospital, London, under the guidance of some of the country’s leading aesthetic surgery specialists.

In 2000 I was appointed an NHS Consultant in Plastic Surgery at St Georges Hospital, London, where my special interests are Child and Adult Hand Surgery and Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery. I am an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the St George’s Medical School. During my career I have published and presented many academic papers. I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh (FRCS Edin), and I am a member of the following Associations and Societies: The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS), The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), The British Society for Surgery of the Hand (BSSH) – (Council member 2008 – 2011)and PRASIS medical indemnity scheme (https://www.prasis.co.uk).

Useful Links

Treatments

I offer a wide range of surgical procedures. Information on the most common procedures is listed below. I am unwilling to offer unlimited advice over the internet, but I would be happy to discuss a procedure in more detail at a private consultation or via short email correspondence to my secretary Lisa Nelson. Click here for information on making an appointment.

Cosmetic surgery

Reconstructive surgery

Cosmetic Surgery

No cosmetic surgery is trivial, and it should only be contemplated when you are in a settled physical and mental state. Do NOT think about this type of surgery if you are unwell, have major medical problems or are in the middle of a significant life crisis, such as divorce or recent bereavement.

Crucially, you must be realistic about cosmetic surgery and what it can and cannot achieve for you – these are real operations with real risks, downtime, pain, financial costs to you and your family, but also genuine potential rewards if you are well-informed, sensible and realistic about what can be achieved. Every person is an individual, with a different body shape and tissue characteristics, and some of the operations you may have seen on reality TV or read about may well not be for you.

I will be very honest about what we can achieve together and I may even suggest no surgery if I do not believe this is in your best interests.

Reconstructive Surgery Hand Surgery

My NHS practice is now dominated by all aspects of hand surgery, so I have a great breadth of experience, including trauma, children’s hand surgery and all common adult hand problems. I have also written guidelines for common hand conditions, which may be accessed at: http://www.bssh.ac.uk/education/guidelines

Paying for Treatment

All consultations take place directly with Mr Fleming. He will perform all procedures and undertake all follow-up treatment and consultations.

A consultation fee is charged for the initial consultation, whether or not you decide to undergo the recommended surgery or procedure. As with most private practice, you may pay for your treatment personally, or claim the costs through a medical insurer. Mr Fleming’s secretary will be able to inform you of the EXACT cost of each consultation before you see Mr Fleming. Medically insured patients may still be liable for any excess on their policy. Mr Fleming does NOT usually charge medically insured patients any more than their policy will pay, for either consultation or procedures, and structures his fees in accordance with BUPA and WPA pricing guidelines.

A GP referral letter is not always necessary for self-paying patients. If you wish to arrange a consultation through a medical insurance policy, it is important that you have a referral letter from your GP and seek authorisation from your insurer before making an appointment.

Following a consultation or treatment an invoice will be sent directly to you. Alternatively, you may request that the invoice be sent to your medical insurer. If you are paying for your treatment personally, a range of fixed-price packages are available for your peace of mind. The cost of each treatment will vary, depending on your specific circumstances and where the treatment takes place.

For details of initial consultation fees and fixed-price packages please contact Lisa Nelson,
Mr Fleming’s secretary, on telephone 020 8337 4455.

Making an Appointment

Most patients are referred to a consultant after seeing their doctor (GP), although a referral is not always necessary for patients who are paying for their own treatment. Mr Fleming will always suggest involving your GP in the healthcare pathway, even with relatively minor cosmetic operations. You can arrange a private consultation with Mr Fleming by contacting:

Private Secretary (Lisa Nelson): 020 8337 4455
Parkside Hospital Appointments Team: 020 8971 8026
New Victoria Hospital Appointments Team: 020 8949 9020/9021

For your convenience, you may make an appointment with Mr Fleming at either New Victoria or Parkside clinics. Follow-up appointments do not necessarily have to take place at the same hospital as your initial consultation.

Referral letters should be addressed to Mr Andrew Fleming, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at Parkside Hospital, 53 Parkside, Wimbledon, London SW19 5NX or Mr Andrew Fleming, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at New Victoria Hospital 184-188 Coombe Lane West, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7EG

Some plastic surgery procedures are available on the NHS. Your GP will be able to advise you if this is the case. In these circumstances your GP’s referral letter should be addressed to St George’s Hospital, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT

Practice Location

Mr Fleming has private clinics at the hospitals listed below.
Fixed-rate cosmetic surgery prices are available from the various hospitals or from Lisa Nelson, Mr Fleming’s private secretary, on 020 8337 4455.
For more information about these hospitals, click on the links below.

Parkside Hospital

53 Parkside,Wimbledon,
London SW19 5NX

Outpatient Clinics – Alternate Monday evenings, alternate Tuesday mornings and Wednesday Afternoons

St Anthony’s Hospital

801 London Road,North Cheam,
Surrey SM3 9DW

Outpatient Clinic – There are no regularly scheduled outpatients clinics

New Victoria Hospital

184-188 Coombe Lane West,
Kingston upon Thames,
Surrey KT2 7EG

Outpatient Clinic – Alternating Tuesday Mornings and evenings

St George’s Hospital

Blackshaw Road,London
SW17 0QT

Secretary contact no. 020 8725 0090

I have been travelling to Zimbabwe annually since 2012 to undertake training, teaching, mentoring, operating and lecturing in Plastic Surgery. When I first started Zimbabwe had no “home-grown” Plastic Surgeons but we have now helped to train 2 local surgeons: Dr Faith Muchemwa and Dr Kevin Nduka. Faith spent a year training with us at St Georges hospital. A third surgeon took take his exit Plastic Surgery examinations at COSECSA (College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa – http://www.cosecsa.org) in Kigali, Rwanda in December 2018. I was also the external examiner in Plastic Surgery for COSECSA until December 2019.

I previously undertook these missions on my own with like-minded colleagues paying our own way but I decided, in 2017, to link these efforts with BFirst (http://www.bfirst.org.uk), the charity arm of BAPRAS (British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons) to ensure continuity and a more reliable funding stream. Our first mission with myself leading 3 young surgeons (and 2 hand therapists) happened in January 2018: http://www.bfirst.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Harare-Zimbabwe-2018.pdf.

Location of Mission and challenges
Pariranyetwa hospital is a general purpose, large government teaching hospital in central Harare, the capital. In it’s heyday the hospital was wonderfully equipped and supplied. Many years of economic hardship mean that even basics like simple drugs, instruments, suture materials, masks and caps etc. are in short supply or non-existent. I take my own latex-free gloves. I have also previously taken surplus instruments out to Zimbabwe (most private hospitals here in the UK use small, disposable minor surgery sets in their minor ops theatres and I ask the lovely nursing staff to keep all those instruments that are not used!). Donations would, however, be welcome!
Patients between the ages of 6-65 have to pay for their own treatment in the Government hospital. Patients also need to bring their own food and often bedding in to hospital and most have to pay the administration towards the cost of treatment – dressings, antibiotics etc. This is another cost we hope to cover in future missions.

Teaching
My contact was/is Prof Godfrey Muguti who is Chair of the Dept of Surgery at the medical school; he is a fantastic, talented old style general surgeon who has always had an interest in Plastic Surgery and was an early mentor in my career. All local surgical trainees are generic but “with an interest” and we are tasked to talk to both the broader group of surgical trainees (usually about 30) or just to the Plastic surgery interest group – about 3-4. They are all very keen and enthusiastic and experienced with trauma and sepsis!
The mission generally spends the first day undertaking formal teaching duties: we do a long clinic in the morning seeing potential patients for operating on in theatre for the rest of the week. On Monday afternoon we have done various forms of teaching including didactic lectures, tendon and nerve workshops and cadaver flap teaching for the Plastics interest trainees.

The rest of the week is spent operating on a mixture of cases with the emphasis being on training local surgeons to do the surgery with us assisting and teaching. We did the first microvascular surgery performed in Zimbabwe on our mission in January 2018. We undertake only surgical cases that we feel the local surgeons can learn from and indeed look after when we have left.

Specific Pathology
There’s plenty of post-burn reconstruction, congenital hand surgery, complex adult hand surgery, some breast recon/breast reduction and complex scars and wounds. Our follow-on resources have been very weak (therapy/dressings etc) in the past but that year we took 2 fantastic St Georges Hand Therapists who trained over 80 hugely enthusiastic therapists during the week.

This charity depends on you the donor. I continue to pay my own way but I would urge anyone who feels they can contribute to do so via this link:
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/displayCharityCampaignPage.action?charityCampaignUrl=bfirstzimbabwe.
Please let me know that you have contributed so that I can acknowledge your support.

Zimbabwe, Drew in Zim video_480

Thanks
Drew Fleming
May 2020

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. This is in accordance with BAPRAS and BAAPS guidelines for good medical practice.

Self-paying patients will not normally have to pay for such visits as the costs are included in your package price. Insured patients will normally be charged.

This can be arranged. Some previous patients have also kindly agreed to talk to prospective patients about their experience. These discussions can be facilitated by the practice manager, Lisa Nelson.

Mr Fleming undertakes all the surgery himself, as well as any ancillary procedures you may require. He will often have a Plastic Surgery Registrar (trainee doctor) in theatre with him, observing, assisting and learning about more complex cases.

Your operation can be arranged to suit your needs and will normally be carried out within 2 to 6 weeks of your consultation.

You can opt out of a procedure at any time beforehand. If you are uncertain or worried about anything, please contact Lisa Nelson, Mr Fleming’s Practice Manager, on 020 8337 4455.

No surgery is without risk, and these will be carefully explained to you by Mr Fleming before the procedure. He believes in an absolute duty of care to his patients and you will be able to contact either Mr Fleming, Lisa Nelson or the hospital where you had your surgery at any time after your surgery. Mr Fleming also has extensive contacts with colleagues in both the private sector and the NHS if more complex help were needed.

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