General & Upper GI Surgeon in Melbourne's North

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Dr Ashok Gunawardene is a compassionate and caring surgeon who endeavors to achieve the best outcomes for his patients. He was born and grew up in the United Kingdom and qualified as a doctor from the University of Birmingham with Honours (MBChB, Hons) in 2009 after being awarded a First Class Bachelor's degree (BSc, Hons) in Anatomy from the University of Leeds. 

After working as a junior doctor rotating through medical and surgical specialties in the NHS, Dr Ashok completed Core Surgical Training leading to Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (MRCS) by examination.  Dr Ashok moved to New Zealand where he completed RACS-accredited training in General Surgery leading to the award of Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS). During this time, he undertook a period of full-time research in Wellington examining the relationship between inflammation and gastrointestinal cancer. This led to a PhD, which was supported by the award of several grants and he has published and presented this and other work Internationally. View list of publications, grants & awards.

Having been selected onto the competitive AANZGOSA post-fellowship training program, Dr Ashok Gunawardene undertook a year of subspecialist training in Upper GI surgery at the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth which included training in advanced laparoscopic skills and interventional upper GI endoscopy. He has general and specialist registration with AHPRA and is a GESA-accredited practitioner in interventional upper (gastroscopy) and lower (colonoscopy) gastrointestinal endoscopy. He is an instructor on the Australia and New Zealand Surgical Skills Education and Training (ASSET) course and is an examiner for the FRACS I Clinical Examination.

Dr  Ashok Gunawardene now lives in Melbourne’s Northern suburbs with his wife and two young children and services the burgeoning population of the outer North by providing a range of services for general and benign upper GI surgical conditions as well as diagnostic and therapeutic gastroscopy and colonoscopy.