vickers became an orthopaedic senior registrar in 1977 and three years later joined st george's hospital as a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. in 1992, he joined the medical household in 1992 as orthopaedic surgeon to the queen and in 2006 he was appointed serjeant surgeon to the queen. he led queen elizabeth the queen mother's surgical team in 1998, when she underwent hip replacement surgery. in 2003, he also performed an operation on elizabeth ii to remove cartilage from her knee and benign skin lesions.