Dr W Allister Dow - Background

More about Dr W Allister Dow

Dr W Allister Dow MB ChB FRCA FFPMRCA Surgeon Cdr Royal Navy Rtd. Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Surrey County NHS Foundation Trust and Director, Surrey Pain Solutions, BMI Mount Alvernia Hospital, Guildford. GMC Number: 4285843

Allister is an experienced consultant in pain management and anaesthesia and has been a consultant since his appointment to the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford in 2008. 

He has been working in private medicine for the last 10 years based primarily at the Mount Alvernia Hospital in Guildford.

Academic Background

Allister trained in medicine at the University of Birmingham where he qualified as Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1996.

He joined the Royal Navy as a junior medical officer whilst at University. He trained under the Wessex School of Anaesthesia gaining the Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2005, Fellowship of the Faculty of Pain Medicine in 2008 and accreditation as consultant anaesthetist in 2008. During this time he completed specialist training in pain management at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth and at Southampton University Hospitals. In addition, he worked for one year in Vancouver, Canada specialising in Neuroanaesthesia and difficult airway management.

Military Career

Allister retired from the Royal Navy in the rank of Surgeon Commander in 2011 after 17 years of military service to pursue his civilian career.

He loved his military career and, during this period, served around the world as a ship’s doctor on a number of naval warships, performed GP duties in naval establishments and was deployed to the Middle-East providing medical support to our servicemen and women during the Iraq conflict. He also trained and worked in the fields of diving medicine and hyperbaric medicine. He worked as medical officer for Submarine Escape Training and for the Submarine Parachute Assistance Group completing over 100 marine parachute jumps. One of the proudest achievements of his military career was having the honour of being appointed as Medical Officer at Buckingham Palace for state occasions, investitures and garden parties.

NHS Practice

Allister is an NHS consultant anaesthetist and consultant in chronic pain management at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust in Guildford. 

He also works for Dorking Healthcare with the Medwyn Pain Service providing NHS pain management services to South and East Surrey regions. He also sees a small number of NHS patients in his pain clinics at the Mount Alvernia Hospital in Guildford by GP choose and book referral. Allister practises the principles of multidisciplinary and bio-psycho-social pain management in partnership with physiotherapists, specialist pain nurses and psychologists. 

Private Practice

Allister has run a private pain practice from the BMI Mount Alvernia Hospital in Guildford for the last 10 years. Here he runs weekly pain clinics and performs regular interventional injection procedure sessions. He also practises privately at Ashtead Hospital near Leatherhead.

Professional Memberships

Allister is a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He is also a member of the Association of Anaesthetists, the British Pain Society and the Medical Protection Society.

Education, Teaching and Research


Allister enjoys teaching and regularly gives talks and educational workshops and seminars to GPs and other medical and non-medical audiences, speaking in particular about modern approaches to multidisciplinary pain management and interventional pain relieving injection procedures. Allister has been involved in international research in both anaesthesia and pain medicine and has numerous publications to his name.

Personal Message 
from Allister

"I believe acute and chronic pain to be both multidimentional and multifactorial requiring a holistic view on management. Injections and medicines can provide relief or even cure however most severe and chronic pains have biological, psychological and social elements, hence bio-psycho-social pain management.

Outside of medicine I love to sail, fish, play the trumpet, road run, climb hills and mountains and spend time with my 11-year old son."

Dr Allister Dow is also Consultant Advisor in Pain Management to Dr Mortons – The Medical Helpline

Dr W Allister Dow
National and International Publications
NSAID Awareness Poster. 
Dow W A. Salisbury District Hospital. Medicines Governance Group Bulletin. May 2006.

Attitudes regarding oral intake during labour: a survey of French Practitioners. 
Greib N, Schlotterbeck H, Joshi G P, Dow W A, Bailey S, Diemunsch P A. IRCAD, Strasbourg, France. Abstract. Anesthesiology 2006; 105: A900

Operational pre-deployment training and its usefulness to medical personnel deploying as individual replacements to areas of operations. Dow W A, Smith J E. J R Nav Med Serv. Dec 2006; 92(3): 136-9

Overseas Fellowship – Cultural experience or culture shock? Dow W A. Cover story. Anaesthesia News. January 2007

Reverse loading to facilitate Glidescope Intubation
Dow W A, Parsons D P. Letter. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia. 2007; 54(2): 161-2

Send us an email

Send us an email and the most appropriate person will contact you by return. 
contact@surreypainsolutions.co.uk

Give us a call

Give us a call to for an initial consultation on our services. We are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm
01483 378165
Review of a systematic approach for suspected difficult intubation under general anesthesia. 
Dow W A, Parsons D P, Wiedeman T, Ries C R. Abstract. Anesthesiology 2007; 107: A603

A combined rigid videolaryngoscopy-flexible fibrescopy intubation technique. 
Greib N, Stojeba N, Dow W A, Henderson H, Diemunsch P A. Letter. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia. 2007; 54(6): 492-3

Ultrasonographic control of the puncture level for lumbar neuraxial blockade in obstetric anaesthesia. Schlotterbeck H, Schaeffer R, Dow W A, Touret Y, Bailey S, Diemunsch P A. British Journal of Anaesthesia. 2008; 100(2): 230-4

Cold nebulization used to prevent heat loss during laparoscopic surgery: an experimental study in pigs. Schlotterbeck H, Schaeffer R, Dow W A, Diemunsch P A. Journal of Surgical Endoscopy. 2008; 22: 2616-2620

Ultrasound technique for neuraxial procedures. Schlotterbeck H, Dow W A, Diemunsch P A. Correspondence. British Journal of Anaesthesia Online.1 March 2008.

Acute and chronic pain - what’s the difference? Published on Dr Morton’s - The Medical Helpline 2018 
Review of a systematic approach for suspected difficult intubation under general anaesthesia. 
Dow W A, Parsons D, Weideman T, Ries C R. Abstract. Anaesthesia. 2008; 63: 1387-1391

Evaluation of gas humidifying devices as a means of intraperitoneal local anesthetic administration for laparoscopic surgery. 
Greib N, Schlotterbeck H, Dow W A, Joshi G, Geny B, Diemunsch P A. Anesth Analg. 2008; 107(2): 549-551

Audit of a systematic approach to laryngoscopy for predicted difficult intubation under general anaesthesia. 
Dow W A, Parsons D G, Weideman T, Ries C R. European Journal of Anaesthesia. 2009; 26(2): 175-176

Is steroid epidural analgesia more effective in a multidisciplinary Pain clinic? An audit of epidural practice and outcomes. 
Wojcikiewicz T, Tonucci D, James C, Dow W A. Presented and published at British Pain Society Annual Meeting 2015

Paracetamol - when does one plus one equal three? Published on Dr Morton’s - The Medical Helpline 2018 https://www.drmortons.co.uk/blog/paracetamol/

Pain deciphered. Published on Dr Morton’s - The Medical Helpline 2018 https://www.drmortons.co.uk/blog/pain-deciphered/

Our Leadership

Dr W Allister 
Dow

Dr W Allister Dow MB ChB FRCA FFPMRCA Surgeon Cdr Royal Navy Rtd. Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Surrey County NHS Foundation Trust and Director, Surrey Pain Solutions, BMI Mount Alvernia Hospital, Guildford. 

Dr Lorraine 
Nanke

Dr Lorraine Nanke - Principle Clinical and Health Psychologist, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Lead Psychologist Pain Management, Royal Surrey Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Guildford.

Stephanie 
Wilkins SRP MCSP

Stephanie Wilkins SRP MCSP - After qualifying as a physiotherapist in 2000, Steph has worked in a variety of NHS settings, including the Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham. During the past 12 years she has worked in the private health sector treating a variety of acute and chronic disorders
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