Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI)

The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) is an association representing general surgery and all its related specialities throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland is the SAC defined specialty association for General Surgery. ASGBI's umbrella status for the general surgical specialty associations and societies is reflected in the structure of its Council and Committees.

The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in 1920 by a group of leading surgeons of the day. The guiding spirit and inspiration behind the concept was Berkeley Moynihan, later Lord Moynihan of Leeds, who had been struck by the lack of cohesion among surgeons as early as 1909. He wrote that “surgeons in one town knew little or nothing of surgeons elsewhere. A surgeon from Manchester had never visited an operating theatre in Leeds, nor had ever been asked in consultation. As a consequence it was not infrequent to have to listen to disparagement of one surgeon by another; and jealousies, openly expressed, were too often heard.” The founding objectives of the Association, therefore, were twofold - the advancement of the science and art of surgery and the promotion of friendship amongst surgeons; these objectives remain the same today.