Lee Errett

Lee Errett’s interest in global surgery began during his training as a cardiac surgeon. During a fellowship at Oxford, he went on several missions to Africa. He continued work with Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross along with travelling with a group from McGill to Haiti. Over a 30 year period, he has operated in 34 countries and all continents, including Antarctica. 

In the last 15 years he has concentrated his work in Jamaica and China. 

In resource-poor Jamaica he helped build three facilities including operating rooms in Falmouth, an eye clinic in Montego Bay and currently operating rooms in Savanna-la-Mar. He has lead eight surgical missions with a variety of surgical specialties including general surgery, urology and orthopedics. 

In his 24 trips to China, Lee has visited 174 hospitals establishing 11 training centres and helped create lasting partnerships between Chinese universities and the University of Toronto. Twice a year he organizes groups of 30 surgeons and physicians who travel throughout China, imparting their specialty where most needed. New paradigms of care have been introduce in surgical work-up, oncologic treatments and great utilization of technologies like 3D echo. In return 142 clinical observers from all over China have come to the U of T affiliated hospitals to learn techniques and processes. This relationship flourished even in the time of COVID with 16 webinar conferences on an array of medical topics. 

The Chinese have recognized these contributions with a number of awards. Most recently Dr. Errett was the recipient of the Friendship Award which is the highest honour bestowed to a foreigner. This was for his humanitarian work and the advancement of medical care in China. He is also the Honorary Dean of the Bethune Modern Medical Research Institute in Changzhou University.