Our Consultants

Mr. Ashley Poynton

Clinical Director Spine and Orthopaedics

Spinal Surgery

  • Cervical spine disorders. Degenerative conditions of the spine. Scoliosis. Spinal deformity. Spinal trauma. Spinal tumours.

  • MD FRCSI FRCS (Tr & Orth)

    Mr. Ashley Poynton is a committed and highly experienced spinal surgeon with international fellowship training in spinal surgery.

    Having completed his orthopaedic higher surgical training under the auspices of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2001 Mr. Poynton was awarded The Certificate of Specialist Training and admitted onto the Specialist Register of the Irish Medical Council.

    Following on from this he underwent further sub-speciality training over two years based at the Hospital for Special Surgery (Cornel University), and Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, Manhattan, New York, USA. This spinal fellowship training programme is world class and involved high volume exposure to all aspects of spinal surgery, including minimally invasive surgery, degenerative, deformity, trauma and spinal oncology. It also involved a fellowship in metabolic bone diseases, a combination of laboratory and clinical research focusing particularly on biology of bone healing and fusion enhancement. Mr. Poynton also has a strong academic background with an MD from TCD in 2000 and over 50 publications in peer review journals along with five textbook chapters.

    Following his return from fellowship in 2003, Mr. Poynton was appointed to the Mater Misericoridae Hospital (incorporating the National Spinal Injuries Unit), Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital and the National Rehabilitation Unit as a Consultant Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon. His major focus was to develop and enhance the National Spinal Injuries Unit and create a multidisciplinary team capable of undertaking highly complex spinal surgery.

    Mr. Poynton is now working in full-time private practice since 2011. He has created The Poynton SpineCare Institute and aims to develop the Institute into the premier spinal clinic in Ireland for the delivery of comprehensive multidisciplinary care for a wide spectrum of spinal disorders.

    Mr. Poynton was appointed as the clinical director for spine and orthopaedics at Mater Private Network in 2023.

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Mr. Nagy Darwish

Spinal Surgery

  • Degenerative spine conditions of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. Complex spine surgery. Minimally invasive surgery. Adolescent and adult deformity. Spinal tumour. Spinal Trauma. Non-operative management of spinal conditions.

  • Mr. Nagy Darwish is an expert spinal surgeon who is committed to the highest level of patient care, known for his high levels of patient satisfaction and holistic approach to patient care. Mr. Darwish is an Orthopaedic Spinal Consultant with over 25 years of consultant level experience treating all aspects of spine pathology. He completed his undergraduate training in Cairo, Egypt, before completing his orthopaedic training in the UK. He completed his MD in Thoracolumbar spine fractures through Birmingham University. He completed international fellowships in the UK (Exeter/ Oswestry) and Hong Kong, as well as working in many units throughout the world. He instigated and developed spinal surgical care within the British Virgin Islands for 10 years, prior to returning to the UK. Most recently he worked in Belfast in both the public and private sector. In the NHS he was a senior surgeon within the department providing care for both adult and paediatric patients, covering the full range of spinal pathologies. His main areas of interest are in degenerative disease, trauma, and deformity.

  • Mr. Darwish has been very active in research and education through clinical mentorship and research supervision with Queen’s University, Belfast. He publishes regularly on all aspects of spine care within journals and in educational resources. He was a founding member of the Belfast spine research group. Mr Darwish is also an active member in Eurospine as well as AO Spine.

Mr. Deb Roy

Spinal Surgery

  • Cervical and lumbar disc prolapse. Degenerative conditions of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. Spinal deformity. Spinal tumours. Spinal trauma. Minimally invasive spine surgery.

  • MRCS(Ed) FRCS (Neurosurgery) 

    Having completed his basic surgical training in North East deanery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he was awarded MRCS(Ed) and CCBST by the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Mr Roy then completed his higher specialist training in Neurosurgery in the West Midlands. 

    He was the winner of 'Travelling Fellowship from North American Spine Society' (NASS) in 2013, which gave him the opportunity to observe and learn from the best spinal surgeons in the United States of America. After finishing his exit exams in Neurosurgery, he did his first Orthopaedic & Spine fellowship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (Australia) for one year in 2015 with Prof Brian Freeman - this was an AO Spine recognised fellowship.  

    He completed his second Neurosurgical spinal fellowship in Salford Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester (UK) in 2016 with Mr John Leach - this is recognised by both “Royal College of Surgeons of England” and “British Association of Spinal Surgeons (BASS)”. 

    Following the completion of his fellowship, he was appointed Consultant Spinal Neurosurgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. This is the largest Neurosurgical department and the leading Level 1 trauma centre in the UK. He has completed multiple international and national podium presentations, written book chapters and published articles in peer reviewed journals. 

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Mr. Peter Samuels

Spinal Surgery

  • Mr. Peter Samuels completed his MBChB in 1997 at the University of Pretoria and worked at various public hospitals throughout South Africa. He then obtained a Diploma in Anaesthetics in 2001 with the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He chose to broaden his career during 2002 in the United Kingdom and Ireland where he worked as a RMO in various hospitals, ICU departments and emergency rescue teams. 

    Upon return to South Africa, Mr. Samuels worked within the departments of general surgery, anaesthetics and trauma until becoming a neurosurgery registrar in 2006 at the University of Pretoria. He qualified with a Master of Medicine in Neurosurgery in 2011 and began working as a cranial and spinal surgeon in private practice at various hospitals on the north and south coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal (South Africa). 

    Mr. Samuels then completed the Fellowship of Neurosurgery qualification in 2017 with the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He continued with private practice in South African until February 2023, when he made the decision to relocate to Ireland and work as a spinal surgeon with the team at the Poynton SpineCare Institute and Mater PrivateNetwork.

    He has obtained many other certifications to date including ABIME, ATLS Instructor (South African Trauma Association), Gamma Knife Radiosurgery (University of Pittsburgh, USA), Endoscopic Spinal Surgery (Joimax, Austria), Microvascular Neurosurgery (Macquarie University, Australia) and Neuromodulation (Medtronic, France). He continues to attend webinars and workshops on both cranial and spinal surgery for professional development.

  • His special interests include degenerative conditions of the cervical and lumbar spine, spinal trauma, spinal cord injuries, interventional pain management, minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery.  He also manages non-operative conditions of the spine and has a keen interest in spinal rehabilitation. 

    • Eurospine

    • European Association of Neurosurgical Societies

    • American Association of Neurological Surgery

    • South African Medico-legal Association

    • South African Medical Association

    • World Institute of Pain

    • World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

    • AO Spine

    • Society of Neurosurgeons of South Africa

    • The South African Spine Society

    • The Trauma Society of South Africa

Mr. Andreas Tarnaris

Spinal Surgery

  • Mr. Andreas Tarnaris M.D. MD (Res), FRCS (SN) is a Functional Neurosurgeon with special interest in chronic pain management. He completed his postgraduate training in the UK and received subspecialty fellowship training in Toronto (Canada), Liverpool (UK) and Oxford (UK). He worked as an NHS Consultant in Southampton General Hospital as part of the Neuromodulation team. In 2024, he joined Mater Private Network in Dublin.

  • His clinical interests include neuromodulation for patients suffering with chronic pain and minimally invasive interventional pain procedures for patients with spinal problems (neck, arm, back and leg pain).

  • Mr. Tarnaris has a long-standing interest in translational research with numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. Mr. Tarnaris has a widely recognized academic background with a postgraduate research degree awarded from University College London (MD Res) that focused on clinical/medical laboratory science/research. He has 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals, more than 1,200 citations, and an h-index of 21 as of 2023. 

    His work has been quoted by many of his peers and he has been a member of groups promoting standards and evidence-based surgical practice. Throughout his career, he has built an extensive network of clinicians from different clinical fields through his participation in various academic groups, committees, and learned societies, including Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS), British Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (BSSFN), British Neurosurgical Trainees Association (BNTA), and International Society for Hydrocephalus and CSF disorders. His present research interest focuses on patient-reported outcomes and pain physiology.

    Mr. Tarnaris has been an expert advisor to the European Union with regards to the safety of medical devices. He is one of the co-authors of the “Neurotechnology Regulation -The Regulatory Horizons Council report” for the UK Government in 2022. Due to his experience and understanding of the regulatory framework, standards, and requirements he is aware of the current state-of-the-art and upcoming technologies, and he can choose the right device for the right patient when treatment requires to do so.

Mr. Paolo Rizzo

Spinal Surgery

  • Degenerative pathology of lumbosacral, thoracic and cervical spine. Minimally invasive and complex spine surgery. Extradural and intradural pathology, spinal trauma, spinal infection

  • Mr. Paolo Rizzo is an expert spinal neurosurgeon devoted to excellence in patient care and wellbeing, with 15 years’ experience as a consultant spinal and general neurosurgeon.

    He completed his training at Padova University Medical School (2000), Italy, discussing his MD thesis developed between the Padova University Department of Neurosurgery and the Mestre-Venice department of Radiotherapy. He completed his neurosurgical training (2008) with the Verona University Department of Neurosciences after working as a trainee at the National Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Milan and in different institutions in the UK. With the Verona Neurosurgical department he developed his interest in spinal neurosurgery and clinical research on the intraoperative neurophysiological evaluation in the acute phase of medullary trauma (Prof. Bricolo, Gerosa, Sala).

    He has had extensive clinical experience in centres in Italy and the UK, with laboratory experience in Milan (Centro Nazionale Neurologico Carlo Besta) and Baltimore, MD, USA (Hunterian’s Lab, Johns Hopkins University). He was a consultant neurosurgeon with special interest in spine between 2009 and 2021 with the Bolzano Hospital in northern Italy, Dolomites region.

    He has worked as a senior spinal fellow with the Oxford University Department of Neurosurgery and with the National Spinal Injury Unit, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin. He was appointed consultant neurosurgeon with the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin and continues his activity devoted to patient care in all aspects of spine conditions. In 2024, he joined Mater Private Network in Dublin.

    A passionate patient’s advocate, Mr Rizzo has strong experience with patient care in multiple healthcare settings. He is an empathetic communicator and a strong believer in constructive communication amongst healthcare workers to optimize patients’ experience and outcomes.

  • Mr. Paolo Rizzo has been active in clinical research with the Verona, Bolzano and Oxford institutions and involved in education and training of colleagues and healthcare personnel, in addition to being an instructor for the European Resuscitation Council European Trauma Course. He is a member of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, AO Spine, the National Neurotrauma Society and the Italian Society of Neurosurgeons (Spine and Trauma). He is published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters in the fields of spine surgery, trauma and oncology neurosurgery.