Mr Fulford studied Medicine at Kings College Hospital London. He did house jobs in Kings College Hospital and Tunbridge Wells, before doling Senior House Officer (SHO) jobs in A&E, Orthopaedics, General Surgery and Urology in London and Reading.
He trained in Urology in Reading, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Cardiff, Leicester, Nottingham and Derby and was Spinal Injury Urology Fellow in Sheffield from October 2000 to April 2001.
Mr Fulford was appointed as Consultant Urologist in Middlesbrough and Darlington on 1st June 2001. before undertaking training in medico legal report writing. He then started preparing reports in 2002.
Mr Fulford has been a Consultant Urological Surgeon at James Cook University Hospital since 1st June 2001. He is also a Consultant Urologist to the regional Spinal Injuries unit based at James Cook University Hospital. He runs a private and medico legal practice at Woodlands Hospital.
He sees and manages large numbers of patients with spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and many other neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury. He regularly performs urodynamic investigations on such patients and offers a full range of management options ranging from ongoing surveillance to major urinary tract reconstructive procedures.
Mr Fulford has a major interest in the investigation and management of functional bladder symptoms and incontinence, including post prostatectomy incontinence in men, primary and recurrent incontinence, urinary symptoms, urethral diverticulae and urinary fistulae in women.
He is also involved in a liaison role with obstetrics, gynae-oncology, gynaecology, nephrology and colorectal colleagues. He regularly undertakes major urological surgeries, including radical cystectomy, orthotopic neo-bladder construction, pelvic exenteration and urinary tract diversions of all types. These include ileal conduits and continent urinary diversions. He regularly repairs urinary tract injuries and fistulae, and performs ureteric re-implantations. He also does a number of bladder reconstructions with augmentation cystoplasty, substitution cystoplasty and Mitrofanoff formation each year and implants 10-20 artificial urinary sphincters each year.
He regularly mentors other urologists learning major reconstructive and prosthetic urological procedures and participates in the on call rota at James Cook University Hospital and is thus exposed to the full range of urological emergencies on a regular basis. Mr Fulford continues to see and treat the full range of general urology patients, both in the NHS and private sector.
He has been a faculty member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) sponsored Spinal Injuries Urology course in Sheffield since appointment. They run two courses a year and all urological trainees attend during their training. Mr Fulford is also on the faculty of the BAUS sponsored Expert Urodynamic Course in Bristol which runs twice a year and regularly teaches and lectures at local and national meetings and courses.
He is involved with colleagues in York University investigating ketamine induced cystitis and is the Principle Investigator for two UK randomised multi-centre studies (MASTER and UPSTREAM) in Middlesbrough and is involved in numerous other research and audit projects locally.
His primary interest within Urology is the care of the neuropathic bladder in patients with spinal injuries or neurological disease. Another area of particular interest is painful bladder syndromes including ketamine induced cystitis syndrome.
Mr Fulford is a lead for female functional neurological and urodynamic “functional” urology in Teesside and covers all aspects of this sub-speciality within urology. He also continues to maintain an interest in all areas of general and core urological practice. In his practice at Woodlands, he treats many core urology patients with lower urinary tract symptoms and/or urinary tract infections. He also treats many funtional urology patients with incontinence, bladder pain syndrome and neurological bladder dysfunction.
Special interests
- Spinal injury and neuro urology
- Functional and reconstructive urology including urodynamics
- Liaison urology with gynaecology and colorectal surgery