Ms Monica Fawzy

Education

With a multilingual background, Monica was educated in a French Lycée then sent to Boarding School at Roedean in Brighton. Initially interested in pursuing a career in art, a family member’s illness led her to follow her parents’ footsteps into Medicine, qualifying as a doctor from Bristol Medical School in 2002.

She taught Anatomy at the University of Oxford and Guys Hospital in London, and trained in Orthopaedic Surgery, General Surgery, Intensive Care and Plastic Surgery before becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2006.

She then undertook further specialist training in Plastic Surgery in various centres in the East of England, cementing this training with a year-long fellowship in Craniofacial Surgery in Paris, followed by a second fellowship in Microsurgery in Cambridge. She furthered her experience with visits to various centres in Europe and the USA, both before and after completing her formal training in 2015, when she joined the GMC Specialist Register in Plastic Surgery.

NHS Appointment

She was appointed as a Consultant Plastic Surgeon with a subspecialty interest in Head and Neck reconstruction and Facial Palsy reanimation (for facial paralysis) at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in 2016- one of the largest volume Head and Neck Reconstructive Units in the UK. Once there, she established the Facial Palsy multidisciplinary patient pathway and set up combined specialised multidisciplinary facial palsy clinics to improve her patients’ experience.

Other Roles and Responsibilities

She was elected by her fellow plastic surgeons to represent the East of England as Council Member on the Board of the Association of British Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAPRAS), a role she will hold until 2021.

She was soon afterwards appointed as the governance lead for the Surgical Division in her NHS Trust with responsibility for ensuring patient safety- a role she held for two years.

She has been appointed as the deputy training program director for the East of England Plastic Surgery Training Program after leading their surgical simulation program for four years.

She is passionate about extending these training opportunities to surgeons in less fortunate areas of the world, and is a committee member of the BFIRST charity, where she is working towards creating an open access educational website for surgeons in low and middle income countries with poor access to educational resources. 

She is a member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons (BAPRAS) and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Approach

Her approach is to listen to your concerns and find out more about you, including your medical, personal and work circumstances. She will then decide with you if surgery is indeed the best solution at that point in time. This process will take at least two consultations, if not more.

She will only offer you surgery if she is certain that you are fully informed of the benefits and risks, and that you are a suitable candidate for this- both from a physical and psychological point of view. 

If she does believe that you would benefit from surgery, then you will be offered a tailored surgical plan that aims to be as minimally invasive as possible – aiming to produce as natural a result as possible.

If she is not certain that this is the case, then she will explain why, and waive any consultation fees accordingly.

If you do decide to go ahead, then a subsequent consultation will be necessary (at least two weeks later) to discuss the plan in more depth. This will also give you the opportunity to explore any questions that may still be unanswered.

You will be fully supported after the operation with regular reviews.

 Accomplishments

• Medical degree from the University of Bristol
• Fellow of the Royal College of Plastic Surgeons FRCS (Plast)
• GMC Specialist Register Member for plastic surgeons
• Elected Council Member of the British Association of Plastic Surgeons (BAPRAS)
• International Member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS)
• Deputy Training Program Director for the East of England Plastic Surgery training program
• Fellowship in Craniofacial Surgery at Hopital Enfants Malades in Paris, France
• Fellowship in Microsurgery in Cambridge

Committee Member of the British Foundation for International Reconstructive Surgery and Training