The department of plastic surgery at Wexham Park Hospital was founded by Stewart Harrison, who was one of the second generation of British plastic surgeons after the big four (Rainsford Mowlem, Harold Gillies, Archibald McIndoe and Thomas Kilner). Mr Harrison was instrumental in developing hand surgery in the UK and he went on to be president of BAAPS, BSSH and BAPRAS.

Mr Harrison initially opened clinics at the Canadian Hospital and then at the King Edward VII Hospital and Upton Hospital. A new hospital was opened in Wexham Park in 1966 with a 32-bedded plastic surgery unit. Following this, Wexham Park Hospital rapidly became recognised as a centre of excellence for hand surgery training.

A series of notable appointments followed, firstly with Magdy Saad joining the unit in 1968. When Stewart Harrison retired in 1976 he was replaced by David Evans. Christopher Khoo joined the team in 1983. Mr Evans and Mr Khoo continued to attract trainees from around the country to Wexham to train in hand surgery.

A microsurgery service was introduced by the department in the 1990s and developed within the first decade of the 2000s by the appointment of Mr Mahendra Kulkarni and Mr Rajan Uppal. Patients across the Frimley Health area are now offered breast reconstruction at Wexham. There has also been development of the skin cancer, lower limb and abdominal wall reconstruction services.

The unit has continued to grow in size since the 2000s and we now have an eight-consultant team with one associate specialist and 14 trainee surgeons. We cover a wide array of plastic surgery subspecialties and are involved with over 20 national research projects.