Scott grew up and did his undergraduate medical training in South Africa. He received an MBChB with honours from the University of Cape Town, South Africa’s top-rated university. He then moved to the UK in 1995 to continue his medical training.
His initial surgical rotation was in Leeds where he worked in a variety of surgical specialties. The first of these was Neurosurgery, and despite having no specific desire to be a neurosurgeon at this early stage in his career, no surgical specialty that he subsequently worked in provided the same enjoyment and satisfaction. As a result, at the conclusion of this basic surgical training, he had no hesitation in choosing Neurosurgery as a specialty which was demanding and rewarding in equal measure. Early neurosurgical registrar training was also in Leeds, but he was then appointed to a substantive registrar training post in Manchester in 2000.
The move to Manchester saw him initially working at Manchester Royal Infirmary, before the neurosurgical department here moved to Salford to complete the unification of neurosurgical services in Manchester in 2001. It was during this period that Scott and Andrew struck up their very productive working relationship. Scott chose to specialise in skull base neurosurgery with a view to working together with Andrew to establish Manchester’s international reputation in this field. He completed a skull base fellowship in 2005, and was appointed as a consultant neurosurgeon at Salford Royal Hospital in January 2006.
Since taking up this appointment, he now leads the skull base service, which is one of the busiest in Europe. However, it is the world-class surgical outcomes that are produced by this service of which he is particularly proud. This subspecialty interest involves surgery for benign tumours at the base of the brain (such as vestibular schwannomas and meningiomas), and these microsurgical skills are also used in the management of trigeminal neuralgia.
Scott still maintains a broad general neurosurgical practice and has managed patients with a range of other conditions throughout his consultant career. These include degenerative spinal disease, hydrocephalus, benign spinal tumours and peripheral nerve disorders. The conditions which he treats are explained on the pages of the Brain and Spine Clinic website.
He is a member of a number of professional societies that include the British Skull Base Society (council member), the European Skull Base Society, the Society of British Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
Beyond his busy clinical practice, he pursues a variety of clinical research interests and has presented and published widely on these topics. His list of publications is predominantly to do with his skull base surgical interest, and also includes a considerable amount of work on Neurofibromatosis Type 2, a genetic condition characterised by benign tumours of the central and peripheral nervous system. A list of Scott’s publications can be found by clicking here.
Scott, together with Andrew, runs an internationally acclaimed sub-specialty training fellowship in skull base neurosurgery. This attracts trainees from the UK and abroad, and following their training, they have all gone on to successful consultant careers in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Scott is married to Kim, a consultant oncologist at the Christie Hospital, and they have 2 sons. Away from neurosurgery, he enjoys travel, scuba diving and exploring the world of wine.