A long-standing tradition in Spanish surgery…

When Dr Carlos Jiménez Díaz set up Clínica de la Concepción in 1955, it meant organising three Services related to the current Speciality of General Surgery and Digestive System, incorporating elements of superspecialisation. This led to three services being created: the Digestive System Surgery Service, under the direction of Dr Carlos González Bueno; the General Surgery Service, under Dr Mariano Zumel; and the Proctology Service, under Dr Pedro de la Viesca.

Dr Moreno González Bueno, considered a pioneer in developing modern Digestive Surgery in our country, took over from Doctor González Bueno in 1967. After his retirement in 1995, Dr Ramón González Cajigal temporarily assumed the role as Acting Head of the Service until 1998, when this position became associated with the Professorship at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Dr Ángel Suárez García successfully passed the competitive exam. Ever since its foundation, the General Surgery Department has been a national benchmark in endocrine surgical pathology of the neck and breast. Dr Zumel left Clínica de la Concepción in 1963 and was succeeded by Dr Santiago Cifuentes Langa, who remained in charge until his death in 1982.

In 1987 it became the "Neck, Breast and Soft Tissues Service", and Dr Juan Manuel San Román Terán was appointed Head until his retirement. Since October 2008, the Digestive and Neck Surgery and Breast and Soft Tissues Services have been merged into the General and Digestive Surgery Service, thus ensuring they are more consistent with national criteria for the speciality. In October 2013, a departmental structure was formed together with the public hospitals Rey Juan Carlos (Móstoles), Infanta Elena (Valdemoro), and Villalba General Hospital, led by Professor Damián García Olmo, Professor of Surgery at the UAM, as Head of the Surgery Department.