Consultants

Joanne Atkins

Miss Joanne Atkins joined the Plastic Surgery Department at Chelsea and Westminster as a Consultant in 2011, with specialism in all aspects of Burn Management and Surgery.

Miss Atkins undertook Higher Surgical Specialist training in Plastic Surgery through the Pan-Thames Plastic Surgery Training Scheme in London and Essex, as well as internationally. Nationally, Fellowships awarded include Aesthetic Fellowship at The London Clinic, Harley Street, Paediatric Plastic Surgery Fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Burns Surgery undertaken at St Andrews Centre for Burns at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. International Fellowships and attachments include a year working in Sydney, Australia at Concord Hospital, gaining extensive experience in Burn Care and general plastic surgery, as well as in Marseille at l’Hôpital de la Conception.

Her current areas of clinical interest include the management of burn injuries, management of complex scars and wounds in children and adults, as well as general plastic surgery cases such as body contouring and breast reduction. Privately, she consults in aesthetic cases, including non-surgical (offering laser, micro-needling, filler, skin care and conditioning) and surgical care, as well as burn, scar and wound management.

Beyond her clinical practice, she continues with activities in Junior Doctor management, mentorship and education—she is a Faculty Member lecturing on the popular and respected MSc. in Surgical Science course for UCL/Royal Free Hospital, and teaches on the Emergency Management of Severe Burns Course.

Declan Collins

Declan Collins joined the burns team in 2015. Declan qualified in 1998 from University College London, completed the Pan-Thames rotation for higher surgical training in plastic surgery and was awarded FRCS (Plast) in 2014. He is on the General Medical Council’s specialist register for plastic surgery. He has undertaken two higher training fellowships: in Burns Surgery (St Andrew’s Centre for Plastic and Burns Surgery) and Aesthetic Surgery (King Edward VII Hospital, London). Declan is the Clinical Research Lead for the Burns Department. He completed his PhD at the University of London (2012) investigating wound healing and burns care.

He is now involved in a number of national and international research trials that aim to ensure clinical care is evidence based and up-to-date. His clinical interest is in scars and wound healing, and he has set up the Laser Service to optimise scar outcomes.

Isabel Jones

Isabel Jones is one of five Plastic Surgeons sub-specialising in Burns, and the Clinical Lead for the Plastic Surgery Service.

She is a member of the British Burns Association, International Society Burn Injury and the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons as well as sitting on the committee for the International Burn Injury Database.

She is an Emergency Management of Severe Burns (EMSB) Instructor, educational supervisor and tutor to trainees and medical students, as well as lecturer and examiner for Imperial Medical School.

Isabel has an active interest in burns research and is regularly consulted on a number of burns related research and development projects. She regularly presents, publishes and is part of the team running a number of clinical trials on burns.

Jorge Leon-Villapalos

Dr Jorge Leon-Villapalos is the Lead Clinician of the Burns Unit. Prior to this, Dr Leon-Villapalos was Consultant in Plastic Surgery and Burns at the St Andrew’s Centre for Plastic Surgery and Burns in Chelmsford, Essex. This unit, part of the London and South East of England Burn Network, is also one of the leading Burns Units in the country. He was also a Fellow in Adult and Paediatric Burns and Adult and Paediatric Burns Intensive Care at the Shriners Hospital for Burned Children in Galveston, Texas, USA which is one of the busiest and most recognised paediatric burns units in the world.

Dr Leon-Villapalos specialises in Burns Surgery and other conditions with extensive skin loss and necrosis such as necrotizing fasciitis, meningococcal septicaemia, and toxic epidermal necrolysis. He also specialises in General Plastic Surgery and the reconstruction and management of scars of all aetiologies. Dr Leon-Villapalos regularly teaches. He is Instructor for the Emergency Management of Severe Burns courses, the only recognised courses in the UK for acute management of burn injuries, and he also teaches burns care for allied health and other professionals such as the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade. Dr Leon-Villapalos has presented at national and international burns conferences and has published in the Burns and Plastic Surgery literature.

Andy Williams

Mr Andy Williams qualified in 1994 from Adelaide University. He initially trained in General Surgery in Queensland before undertaking Plastic Surgery training in Sydney, being awarded FRACS (Plast) in 2007. Andy completed a burns fellowship at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital before working as a consultant plastic surgeon in Bristol and being appointed as a consultant at Chelsea and Westminster in 2012. His primary focus is on burns education and treatment and he has taught in over a dozen countries on the diagnosis and management of burns. He has experience with disaster management following the 2002 Bali bombings and volunteers his time for teaching and surgery in the developing world through the Interplast organisation based in Australasia and hospitals in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since 2010 he has been clinical governance lead, firstly for the Division of Plastic Surgery in Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, and then for the Burns Service at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He has extensive experience in preparation of medicolegal reports and expert witness proceedings in court, having done so for the last 10 years for burn injuries and plastic surgery cases.

Andy’s professional expertise includes but is not limited to Burns surgery, General plastic surgery, paediatric plastic surgery, scar management, non-surgical interventions including anti-wrinkle medicines, CO₂ and PDL laser for scar management and medicolegal expert reports.