Peter Sagar qualified from Leeds Medical School in 1983 with honours after initially gaining a First Class Honours degree in Pathology in 1980. After basic surgical training at The General Infirmary at Leeds and becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, he went on to complete a Doctorate in Medicine with research into new techniques in the surgery for inflammatory bowel disease. This work was awarded the prestigious Patey prize by the Surgical Research Society in 1990.
His research interests continued as a Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Liverpool, before working as a Chief Resident at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
In 1996, he started at Leeds General Infirmary and has gone on to develop a national referral practice for the management of recurrent pelvic malignancy. Peter has been involved in the laparoscopic management of colon and rectal disease since its inception and currently runs an active training and research fellowship.
He was awarded the Hunterian Professorship by The Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2012 and was made Professor of Colorectal Surgery in 2018. He is also a member of The Court of Examiners, Speciality Advisory Committee (General Surgery) and Associate Training Programme Director (Yorkshire & Humber). Prof Sagar is also a Council member of the Royal College of Surgeons and President of the Association of Coloprocology of Great Britain and Ireland.