Miss Alexandra Cope

Miss Alexandra Cope is a renowned consultant general and colorectal surgeon who completed her undergraduate medical training at St. Mary’s Hospital Paddington (Imperial College) in 2001. She began her surgical career at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, undertaking their Basic Surgical Rotation and successfully passing her MRCS examination in 2004.

Throughout her career, Miss Cope has held both clinical roles within the NHS and academic positions at universities. She holds a Master’s degree in Surgical Education and has served as an NIHR-funded academic clinical lecturer at the University of Leeds. Additionally, she earned a PhD from Imperial College London and a Postgraduate Diploma in Coloproctology from the University of East Anglia.

Miss Cope completed a full term as an elected member of the Association of Coloproctologists of Great Britain and Ireland’s Education and Training Committee and has hosted multiple webinars on topics in coloproctology. She is a full Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Miss Cope was awarded an RCS Research Fellowship and the prestigious RCS Harry Morton Travelling Fellowship, which enabled her to collaborate with leading medical education research centers in Canada, including the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Western University, and McGill University. She developed and managed a simulation training program for Core Surgical Trainees within the Oxford Deanery and has featured in various radio and television programs discussing medical simulation.

Miss Cope was honoured as a Lady Estelle Wolfson Emerging Leadership Fellow by the Royal College of Surgeons of England. She also completed a national Ethicon Laparoscopic Colorectal Fellowship at Newcastle University Teaching Hospitals. Her research primarily focuses on surgical decision-making and education.

Currently, she holds a BDRF grant for a project examining surgeons’ choices regarding the avoidance or defunctioning of rectal anastomosis and serves as principal investigator on an NIHR research study. Clinically, her interests lie in minimally invasive colorectal cancer surgery as well as the treatment of benign colonic and rectal conditions.

In 2016, Miss Cope was appointed consultant general and colorectal surgeon at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. She practices independently as an open, laparoscopic, and robotic surgeon utilizing the Da Vinci XI system. She conducts outpatient clinics, diagnostics, and inpatient care across Frimley Park Hospital, Heatherwood Hospital, and Wexham Park Hospital.

Miss Cope provides diagnostic and therapeutic colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, and proctoscopy, holding JAG accreditation in colonoscopy and recognition as an accredited trainer. She is the training programme director for Higher Surgical Trainees in General Surgery for Thames Valley, overseeing the education of senior surgical residents at Oxford University Hospitals, Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, Milton Keynes NHS Trust, Royal Berkshire NHS Trust, and Frimley Health.