John is a neurosurgeon specialising in spinal neurosurgery and oncology (brain and spine tumours).
Born in London, John grew up in Sydney before moving back to the U.K to study medicine at both Oxford and Cambridge. He was awarded a Masters in Neurophysiology whilst at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and completed his medical studies at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1998.
Training as a junior doctor was also split between Australia and the UK. John’s basic surgical training was predominantly in Melbourne, with some neurosurgical training at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. His interest in neuroscience began at an early stage in his medical career, but was really stimulated by working for Professor Andrew Kaye in his world-renowned unit at The Royal Melbourne Hospital from 2001-3.
John commenced specialist neurosurgery training at the old Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and supplemented this with a Fellowship in neuro-oncology and spinal surgery back in Melbourne at The Alfred Hospital.
Since 2009, John has been a consultant neurosurgeon at Salford Royal, which serves as the neuroscience centre for the whole Greater Manchester region and beyond. He was attracted to Manchester by the reputation of the neurosurgery department as a cohesive unit of consultants driving forward changes in UK neurosurgery such as sub-specialisation, training and research. The Brain and Spine Clinic epitomizes this ethos of highly sub-specialized neurosurgeons bringing their own particular skills to a network of colleagues and, most importantly, guiding patients towards the very best treatments that can be offered both here and around the world.
John acted as Clinical Lead for the Department of Neurosurgery 2012-14 and continues to lead the sub-specialty of Spinal Neurosurgery. This is the busiest spinal neurosurgery unit in the UK, with excellent clinical and patient-reported outcomes. With colleagues, John runs a Fellowship training program recently recognised by the Royal College of Surgeons. He represents Neurosurgery North on the Spinal Services CRG for NHS England and is clinical chair of the North West Regional Spinal Network responsible for the care of 7.5 million spinal patients across North West England
His interest in technological innovation to improve patient surgical experience is reflected by his commitment to spinal navigation and routine use of neurophysiological monitoring in cases of spinal cord compression. John was instrumental in acquiring an O-arm scanner for Manchester to improve intra-operative imaging of spinal implants.
John is a surgeon member of the Neuro-oncology MDT, which meets each week to discuss all central nervous system tumours for the Manchester region. He is an expert in the management of primary brain tumours (gliomas), secondary brain tumours (metastases), meningiomas, metastatic spine tumours and intradural spine tumours. Surgery is always considered in the context of access to on-going research trials, fluorescein-guided brain tumour resection, spinal cord/neuro- monitoring and other treatment modalities such as stereotactic radiosurgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy where appropriate.
Contact Mr Leach:
The OrthTeam Centre. Ohm Building (Unit 1), Didsbury Technology Park, 168 Barlow Moor Road, Manchester M20 2AF.