Denis Lawlor is the founder of Eccles Clinic. Having qualified in medicine from UCD in June 1969 he pursued a surgical career and from early on wished to become a plastic surgeon.
Eccles Clinic is founded on the basis of "see and treat". This allows us to treat more patients on an outpatient basis which is preferable to a lot of people requiring minor procedures. Post the healthcare cutbacks in the late 80’s, Mr Lawlor made efforts to reassess how more patients could be treated effectively with more reduced cost. A simple idea of ‘see and treat’ for trauma patients led to a 25% reduction in admissions in that area.
The idea now continues at Eccles Clinic, as a very large number of plastic surgery patients can be treated with local anaesthesia as an outpatient on a ‘see and treat’ basis.
Mr. Lawlor is a co-founder and ex-chairman of the Irish Association of Plastic Surgeons (IAPS). He is also the co-founder and ex-president of the Irish Hand Surgery Society (IHSS).
Following his consultant appointment he took a keen interest in teaching, training, and expanding the specialty so that more consultants were available to treat the public. He was the RCSI representative on the Special Advisory Committee for the UK and Ireland, overseeing surgical training standards. During his career, he has seen plastic surgery consultant numbers grow from five to twenty and training slots from one to eighteen.
1973 Obtained his fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeon Ireland (RSCI).
1979 Was made a Specialist Registrar (SpR) in Plastic Surgery at the RCSI.
1980
Took up a fellowship at the Microsurgery Research Centre at St. Vincents hospital in Melbourne, Australia (now known as the Bernard OBrien Institute of Microsurgery).On his return, he introduced, for the first time in Ireland, reconstructive microsurgery procedures for patients here.
1981 Was a clinical assistant to Mr. John Heuston at St. Georges Private Hospital, Sydney, Australia
1982 Became a fully accredited Plastic Surgeon at the RCSI.
1984 Was a clinical assistant to Mr. Fred Nicole, Plastic Surgeon at Harley Street and the Wellington Hospital in London.
1984 He was appointed as a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Dr. Steevens hospital, James Connolly Memorial hospital and the Mater hospital.
1988 He moved with the specialty from Dr. Steevens hospital on its closure to St. Jamess hospital during a time of crisis in the health service.
1989 With the input of the Department of Health, he initiated the first Comhairle na nOspidéal review of the specialty of Plastic Surgery, delivering their report in 1993. The report was fully implemented before the second review was undertaken in 2005.
1994 He established, what was at that time, the National Laser Surgery Unit at St. James hospital.
2006 He took early retirement from the HSE.
2009 Founded the Eccles Clinic.