Associate Professor Philip Townend is a specialist in Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery as well as General Surgery. After graduating medicine from the University of New South Wales in 2007 he completed his internship/residency in Newcastle, NSW. He then went to South Africa and did a trauma surgery residency at Stanger Hospital in KwaZulu Natal. He was then successful in getting onto the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons SET trainee program

for general surgery where he was based at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. This is where he developed an interest in complex Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery.

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After obtaining his FRACS in general surgery in 2017 he went on to receive further training as a fellow in HPB Surgery (doing high volume complex pancreatic and liver surgery) at Royal North Shore Hospital and the Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery Fellow at The Canberra Hospital, ACT. In 2018 Philip was one of 6 successful candidates throughout Australia and New Zealand to be offered an ANZGOSA (Australia and New Zealand Gastric and Oesophageal Surgery Association) Fellowship for 2 years. He continued his ANZGOSA training at Bankstown/Liverpool Hospital in Sydney specialising in both Oesophagogastric and Hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery. In 2019 he took his family to the United Kingdom where he worked as the oesophagogastric fellow at the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham performing large volume oesophagogastric surgery.

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He commenced consultant practice in 2020 at Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast Private Hospital and Pindara Private Hospital. During his training and as a consultant he produced multiple research papers (some of which have received awards) and presented in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, USA and Europe. He is on committees locally, nationally and internationally responsible for improving patient care and supporting research projects. He was made Associate Professor at Griffith University School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2021 for his work in research and teaching.

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