Personal Profile
Mr Ballard is now a Consultant Obstetrician, UroGynaecologist and Complex Pelvic Floor Surgeon and led in this area across both James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough and Friarage Hospital, Northallerton.
He is also part of a four person team (2 consultants, 2 physiotherapists) called Inconti – Care NE and Yorkshire, who take a multi-disciplined team approach to problems in the pelvis and they are the only such team between York and Harrogate to the South and Durham to the North in the private sector that offer this more holistic approach.
Mr Ballard has tirelessly strived to develop a modern, comprehensive and patient centred service. He has an easy manner that allows patients to feel relaxed and enter into often difficult and embarrassing discussions, which are inevitably very frequent in the specialties of Gynaecology and Urinary Continence Treatment. A patient who is relaxed is more able to convey the difficulties she is facing and this can result in a more detailed and fruitful consultation and therefore a more patient-specific treatment programme. Mr Ballard ensures patients are provided with all the information they require, verbal and written, and adequate time to consider their treatment options. Patients are given realistic expectations for treatment outcomes to enable them to make a personal choice as to which treatment option suits their particular needs at that time.
After 10 years of training, including 2 years of dedicated research resulting in an MD thesis, Mr Ballard obtained a consultant post (2000). He has trained many junior doctors over the years. As a consultant for more than 20 years, he has seen innumerable clinical scenarios and developed a broad armamentarium of surgical skills and procedures, offering both simple low risk procedures and more complex procedures.
He has an emphasis on minimal access surgery seeking to improve patients’ post-operative pathway and enabling them to recover more quickly.
Having trained before mesh was introduced into this surgery, Mr Ballard is well acquainted with non-mesh surgical techniques for continence and prolapse and finds himself doing an increasing number of such procedures, now that mesh has fallen out of favour.
He is a fervent believer in patient choice and considers that his role is to inform and individualise risk and advice, but ultimately the patient should be making the decision on what treatment they feel themselves, is most appropriate. Mr Ballard will also discuss the many fringe treatment options that are available, including their benefits and drawbacks.
He has worked for the British Society of UroGynaecology in various roles for 15 years including the Chair of the Governance Committee, where he was committed to improving standards across the specialty.
