Dr Tim Gatheral

Professional statement

Dr Tim Gatheral is a leading consultant respiratory physician based in Preston, who specialises in chronic cough, breathlessness, bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as interstitial lung disease (ILD) including pulmonary fibrosis. His NHS work is based at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMB).  His private clinic is located at the Greater Lancashire Hospital in Preston. 

Dr Gatheral is highly qualified, with a MA (1999) and MB BChir (2002) from the University of Cambridge. After post-graduate training in London Dr Gatheral undertook a period of research at the National Heart and Lung Institute and Royal Brompton Hospital leading to the award of a PhD from Imperial College London in 2012.

He runs the specialist Interstitial Lung Disease clinic at his NHS hospital, specialising in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), which is a form of ILD characterised by damage to the lung accompanied by an uncontrolled healing response that causes progressive scarring or thickening (fibrosis) of tissues between the lungs' air sacs. 

Dr Gatheral is a respected name in his field as a lead member of the Morecambe Bay Respiratory Network (an integrated respiratory care network promoting excellence in respiratory care diagnosis and management), and also in clinical academia. He is a senior clinical lecturer at Lancaster Medical School where he is co-director of Year 3, and his research has been published in various peer-reviewed journals. He is principle investigator for several university and industry led clinical research trials in Morecambe Bay.

Dr Gatheral has recently been appointed as the director of research and development at UHMB and has held previous managerial roles at the trust including  clinical lead for respiratory medicine.