The 50 most influential Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in health: Rising stars

Ruw Abeyratne

Dr Abeyratne is director of health equality and inclusion at University Hospitals of Leicester Trust and a consultant in geriatric and general medicine. She has urged the NHS to recognise the value of community insight to understand why certain inequalities arise and how they can be tackled. UHL is creating a “social movement for health inequality” that empowers every colleague to make a difference, she said.

Zubir Ahmed

Dr Ahmed is Labour MP for Glasgow South West, a Department of Health and Social Care Parliamentary private secretary and close to Wes Streeting. He continues to practise medicine – he is a transplant and vascular surgeon – and has been prominent in supporting action to limit smoking and vaping, in particular marketing to children. He has said the NHS “would not survive” without immigrants.

Emmanuel Akinluyi

Mr Akinluyi – known as Didi – is a consultant clinical scientist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust, where he is joint head of medical physics and clinical engineering. He also lectures at King’s College London, where he created and coordinates a medical engineering design course, and is the deputy director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s healthtech research centre.

Sanjoy Bhattacharyya

Professor Bhattacharyya is the British International Doctors Association’s deputy secretary and chair of its academic forum. He is the head of the school of history at the University of Leeds. He has carried out groundbreaking work on the history of global health programmes and, during the pandemic, pointed out that vaccine passports were first used in British India in 1897 to control plague and smallpox.

Harroop Bola

Dr Bola may only have graduated as a doctor this year, but he has already founded the British Indian Medical Organisation, which supports doctors through mentorship, portfolio development and medical education. He has also written medical textbooks and led the creation of question banks and webinar libraries for a publisher. He is currently working as a specialised foundation doctor in cardiology and cardiothoracics.

Owen Chinembiri

Mr Chinembiri has a passion for data and technology and their ability to transform the NHS for both patients and staff. He is the NHS Race and Health Observatory’s associate director (digital health and

data) and was on the NHS graduate management trainee scheme. He has also worked in Zimbabwe and Botswana, and for Macmillan Cancer Support. He is an occupational therapist by background.

Subodh Dave

Professor Dave is dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, where he has responsibility for setting standards for education and training. He is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Greater Manchester, where he is also deputy director of undergraduate medical education. He works as a consultant liaison psychiatrist at Derbyshire Healthcare Foundation Trust and is a trustee of Doctors in Distress, which promotes the mental health of healthcare workers.

Timothy Ho

Dr Ho is chief medical officer at Frimley Health Foundation Trust, where he also works as a consultant chest physician. He was instrumental in getting the trust through the pandemic, during which it faced severe challenges, particularly when Slough had some of the country’s highest rates of infection. He also played a key role in the then Frimley Park Hospital FT being the first in England to be rated “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission. He was awarded an MBE in 2021.

Faisal Hussain

Mr Hussain is the Spinal Injuries Association’s chair and interim joint chair at Leicestershire Partnership Trust and Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust. He has spent much of his working life in local government. He has been tetraplegic since 1989 and is committed to ensuring those with spinal cord injury, their families and carers get high standards of care and support.

Hamaad Khan

Graduate medical student Mr Khan is the co-founder of Rethinking Health, which advocates for better education of healthcare professionals as a way to reform the healthcare system. It argues for focusing on disease prevention to create a more sustainable system. He is also development officer for the Global Social Prescribing Alliance and has authored a global report for the World Health Organisation.

Amit Kochhar

Dr Kochhar is the recently elected chair of the British Medical Association’s representative body, responsible for running its key annual meeting. He is an associate specialist in ear, nose and throat and a former chair of the BMA’s specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctor committee, where he led the fight for improved pay, progression and recognition. One of his first jobs after being elected as representative body chair was to chair an extraordinary meeting on the 10-Year Health Plan.

Lucy Muchina

Ms Muchina is the deputy chief nursing officer at the Royal College of Nursing, where she is a passionate advocate for the profession. She qualified as a nurse and midwife in Kenya but relocated to England, where she gained additional qualifications and has worked in acute and commissioning

organisations. She has also worked as a regional director for the South West at the RCN. Outside of healthcare, she is a keen singer and has released several albums.

Asma Nafees

Ms Nafees is a deputy chief operating officer at Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit and a non-executive at Derbyshire Community Health Services Foundation Trust. She is also the co-chair of the Asian Professionals National Alliance, a South Asian NHS staff network. She has championed the need for culturally appropriate services and for a focus on staff wellbeing.

Mahmud Nawaz

Mahmud Nawaz was appointed Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust‘s chair this summer after 18 months leading Chesterfield Royal Hospital FT. He is an NHS Blood and Transplant organ donation ambassador, working to raise awareness after the loss of his wife and the donation of her organs in 2004. He has worked for 20 years in financial services and has also been a charity chair.