Nick Birch (Orth)

Nick Birch trained in Cambridge and London in the 1980s and became a fellow of the Royal College of surgeons in 1989. His general orthopaedic training was at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Stanmore and the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. His interest in spinal matters grew as he progressed through his training and he completed a formal Spinal Fellowship in 1995 prior to being appointed as a consultant at Northampton General Hospital in 1996. From 1996 to 2002 he developed his specialist interest in spinal conditions and from 2002 onwards became a full-time spinal specialist. Since then, he has run a very successful private spinal practice in Northamptonshire. From early in his career Nick has taken a very significant interest in professional and patient education and he has widely published and lectured in the UK, Europe and worldwide. He is the Spine Specialty Editor for the Bone and Joint Journal and he is a member of the Associate Editorial Board of the European Spine Journal. Since 2012 he has been the honorary treasurer of the United Kingdom Spine Societies Board (www.ukssb.com) and has had responsibility for co-organising BritSpine, the major biennial multidisciplinary spinal conference in the UK.