Dr Chris Gillespie

BHB MBChB FRACS CSSANZ

Chris attended medical school at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, graduating in 2001. After some time overseas, he underwent general surgical training at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne (2005-2011) but spent one year at King’s College Hospital in London for intensive care and emergency medicine training. During this time Chris received the Gordon Gordon-Taylor medal for the highest mark in Australasia for basic surgical sciences. Chris was then accepted to post-fellowship training in colorectal surgery under the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia & New Zealand, and spent 2 years undergoing subspecialty training at Auckland City Hospital and Gold Coast Hospital. Chris achieved membership of the CSSANZ and was awarded the Travelling Fellowship resulting in visits to St. Mark’s Hospital, Oxford and Basingstoke Hospitals in the UK in 2013.

Since completing training Chris has held public appointments at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Logan Hospital and Mater Public Hospital and started private practice at Brisbane Colorectal in 2014. In 2013 he set up the “Enhanced Recovery After Surgery” programme at Logan Hospital; this has gone on to result in improved outcomes for colorectal surgery patients at Logan Hospital, with reduced complications and hospital stay.

Chris enjoys teaching and has been senior coordinator of the Queensland CORE course for general surgical trainees, as well as being an instructor for the “Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient” course. He has particular interests in minimally invasive surgery, anal fistula, and colorectal pelvic floor disorders including faecal incontinence and defecatory dysfunction. Chris set up the colorectal pelvic floor unit at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, now the Queensland centre for public patients with colorectal pelvic floor disorders, and this successful model is what has driven the development of the QLD Pelvic Floor Centre for private patients. He has many years of experience in investigating patients with anorectal problems using anorectal physiology and endoanal ultrasound, and is widely published in this area.

Chris is an accomplished laparoscopic surgeon and also offers robotic colorectal surgery using the latest Da Vinci Xi robot available at Mater Private Hospital.

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