Meet the Bristol Pregnancy Scans team

Phillip Smith

Phillip qualified from The Royal London Hospital in 1976. He subsequently trained at Queen Charlottes Hospital, The Soho Hospital for Women, and The Chelsea Hospital for Women in London. He then spent time at Kings College Hospital, and received full training in Obstetric & Gynaecological Ultrasound. Phillip was appointed as a Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician, at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, in 1989.

He subsequently developed the Obstetric Ultrasound Service at Southmead, and has trained many of the Midwife Sonographers working there, and subsequently at 'Bristol Pregnancy Scans'. Over the last 10 years Phillip has developed an interest in the management of prolapse and urinary incontinence.
Website: www.phillipasmith.co.uk

Sanjay Vyas

Sanjay qualified from the London Hospital Medical School in 1984. The bulk of his training then took place at King's College Hospital. Following clinical training, he was appointed research fellow to Prof Kypros Nicolaides. His research focused on high risk pregnancies, and how to monitor their wellbeing using ultrasound. This work has been published in international journals. He came to Bristol as senior registrar at St Michael's Hospital and was then appointed consultant to Southmead Hospital in 1994.

He has maintained his interest in ultrasound and is a co-editor of a textbook on ultrasound in early pregnancy and gynaecology to be published soon.
Website: www.endo-clinic.co.uk

Simon Grant

Simon qualified in Bristol in 1985. He trained in the south-west of England and New Zealand, before undertaking a DM thesis at Southampton University and Maternal Fetal Medicine subspecialty training at the Birmingham Women's Hospital.

He was appointed as a Consultant in Obstetrics & Gynaecology in Truro in 2000, with responsibility for the labour ward and moved to Southmead as a Consultant in Obstetrics & Fetal Medicine in 2005.

Sherif Abdel-Fattah

Sherif qualified from Ain-Shams University, Cairo, Egypt in 1985 . He was then awarded an academic fellowship, and wrote his MD thesis in Glasgow in 1994. He continued with clinical training in Yorkshire.

In 1998 he moved to Bristol, where he undertook his Fetal Medicine training. Appointed as a Consultant in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine in St Michael's Hospital in Bristol and a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol in 2002, he then moved to Southmead Hospital in Bristol as a Consultant in Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics in April 2008. Sherif has developed a research interest in fetal anaemia and fetal infections, and has several publications in this area. Sherif is married with 2 children and is a keen traveller.

Timothy Draycott

Tim trained in London and the SW of England with valuable time spent working in France, Sweden and South Africa. He has been a Consultant at Southmead Hospital since 2002 with a general gynaecology practice. With an interest in miscarriage and problems of early pregnancy, he has also published a number of research articles on miscarriage. In 2007 Tim was awarded the National Prize for Obstetrics & Gynaecology Team of the Year and also Hospital Doctor of the Year for his work on problem pregnancies and deliveries. He has a particular research interest in shoulder dystocia which has led him to publish 3 books, over 20 research articles and has been appointed as visiting Professor in the US and Australia.

Tim is married with 3 children aswell as being a keen cyclist and surfer whereas the rest of the family are horse mad.

Chrissie Hammonds

Chrissie Hammonds trained as a nurse and midwife before gaining a Master's degree in Medical Ultrasound in 2001. She works as a midwife-sonographer at Southmead Hospital and has played a key role in the planning and implementation of a post graduate medical ultrasound programme at the University of the West of England.

She writes for babycentre.co.uk website as their Ultrasound Expert and was a co-author of the BabyCentre book "Pregnancy Questions and Answers". As Ultrasound Expert to MIDIRS (The Midwives Information and Resource Service), Chrissie is also involved in writing information leaflets and publications for professionals and for women.

Angie Hobbs

Angie trained as a midwife at the University of the West of England working in both the hospital and community setting before studying a further two years to gain a Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She works for Southmead hospital as a Midwife sonographer. Angie is also a university assessor and leads the training of the ultrasound students at Southmead Antenatal clinic. Angie has a special interest in fetal hearts and is currently involved in the training of extended views of the fetal heart within the ultrasound department at Southmead.

Angie has been married for over 20 years with 3 sons and interests include cooking, and walking.

Kathryn Henson

Kathryn is a Registered Midwife who studied at the University of the West of England. She has worked in all areas of midwifery before spending a further two years at University studying the Post Graduate Diploma in Medical Ultrasound. Kathryn scans in both obstetrics and gynaecology ultrasound, working in the busy ultrasound department at Southmead Hospital, where she is involved in the full range of obstetric scans. She has worked for two years on the current clinical trial, screening for ovarian cancer on the UKCTOCS program, and her special interests are in 3/4 dimensional ultrasound in which she specialised in her 2nd year at university.

She is married with two teenage boys and enjoys spending time with her family, cooking and gardening.

Margaret Furner

Margaret trained as a general nurse in London and a midwife in Taunton. She then gained experience in both hospital and community settings in Exeter and Bristol before starting work at Southmead in 1990. She has been working as a Midwife sonographer in Antenatal clinic at Southmead since 1998. Margaret gained her Post Graduate Diploma in Medical Ultrasound Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of the West of England in 2003. As part of her training she studied the use of ultrasound in infertility. Margaret is also an assessor for the University of the West of England Ultrasound students and is a Supervisor of Midwives.