Mr Sami Habal areas of expertise:
Professional statement
Mr Sami Habal is a highly skilled consultant ophthalmic and vitreoretinal surgeon, with practice in London and Sittingbourne, who specialises in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy, macular holes and retinal detachment with vitreoretinal surgery. In addition to simple and complex cataract surgery, he is also an expert in the diagnosis and management of macular degeneration. Alongside his work at King’s College Hospital, Mr Habal currently sees patients at The Blackheath Hospital, The Harley Street Eye Centre and SpaMedica Sittingbourne.
Mr Habal qualified from the University of Damascus, Syria with distinction. He completed his ophthalmology training on the Damascus rotation, at the Eye Surgical Hospital, and then undertook a second, higher, ophthalmology training in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands. Mr Habal later accomplished three prestigious fellowships: an ocular oncology fellowship at the University of Toronto, Canada and two vitreoretinal fellowships, at Birmingham and Midlands Eye Centre and at Oxford University’s John Radcliff Hospital, becoming one of the few ophthalmic surgeons in the world to complete 11 years of training in advanced retinal conditions.
Following his training, Mr Habal was appointed as a locum and consultant ophthalmologist at some of the UK’s leading hospitals including the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Queen Mary’s Hospital Sidcup. Since then, Mr Habal has performed more than 8,000 cataract and 2,000 vitrectomy surgeries, with outstanding patient and surgical results.
With an interest in optimising ophthalmology and patient care, Mr Habal is also passionate about medical and surgical education. He is an assessor at the Royal College of Ophthalmologists at King’s College Hospital and a clinical advisor for ophthalmology trainees, teaching the future generation of ophthalmologists from the South East London region. Further to this, Mr Habal is also an author of various papers in peer-reviewed journals, presents at national and international conferences and is an active member of several ophthalmology associations.