Why Dr Subodh Dave, dean-elect of Royal College of Psychiatrists, champions the cause of Indian origin students in the UK

The issue of Indians and people of Indian origin in the United Kingdom facing racism was highlighted in the Upper House of the Indian Parliament on Monday, when the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, said that India would take up concerns over racism and cyberbullying with the UK, when required. The minister was referring to the incident of Rashmi Samant, an Indian student at the University of Oxford, who was allegedly forced to resign as president of the hallowed institution’s students union within five days of her appointment. Samant was called out for her alleged racism and quit amidst an uproar.
While the case of Ms Samant, the first Indian woman to be elected president of the Oxford University Students Union, has highlighted the issue of racism in the UK, for thousands for young Indian doctors and medical students – International Medical Graduates (IMGs) as they are referred to in the UK – racial discrimination has been a way of life. And it was deep concern over such inherent structural and institutional racism faced by hundreds of IMGs that led Dr Subodh Dave, one of the UK’s best-known psychiatrists and professors, who was elected dean of the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) for a five-year term early this year, to become their champion and mentor.

According to estimates by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), there are around 60,000 doctors of Indian origin working in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and the intake by medical schools of Indian origin students is over 20 per cent. But, as Dr Dave points out, even though IMGs form the backbone of the UK’s medical services, they are unfortunately not made to feel welcome within the system. “The NHS is saving big money by importing fully-trained doctors, largely from India and also from several other countries. However, not enough is being done for the proper induction of these young doctors and often they are being set up for failure. They have to deal with a new system of work and examinations as well as issues of settling in. Often, they end up making mistakes and getting reported to the General Medical Council,” Dr Dave told TIMESOFINDIA.com in an exclusive interview from London.
While there is growing awareness on this issue among some universities, Dr Dave feels that the NHS authorities need to do much more to support IMGs and help them raise their heads above the parapet. In his roles as associate dean of trainee support at RCPsych and vice chair of the BAPIO’s Institute for Health Research, Dr Dave has taken up the task of mentoring young IMGs, newly arrived from overseas, and organised induction programmes for them across the UK.
Dr Dave has also been closely associated with dealing with the problem of institutional racism within the NHS that has come under intense scrutiny during the past year, with a larger number of deaths among doctors from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities, during the pandemic. He was part of a taskforce set up last year by the RCPsych to examine the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on doctors and healthcare workers from minority communities and feels that this is a good time to have the conversation on racism within the NHS.
“A survey we conducted found that the existing discrimination and structural inequalities within the healthcare community in the UK were magnified during the Covid pandemic. When it comes to taking risks at the frontline it is always the IMGs first; they’re the ones working weekends and not complaining about lack of personal protective equipment. And often these additional challenges are the reason for higher number of deaths among the BAME doctors,” he said. Dave is, however, thankful that the British Medical Association (BMA), the apex body of doctors in the UK, recognised the need for the survey and its recommendations were widely accepted and used to support BAME healthcare workers on the frontlines.
Dr Dave, as a top psychiatrist, is equally concerned over the mental health issues during the pandemic among doctors of Indian origin. “The lockdowns and quarantines have a negative impact with several cases of mental health issues such as insomnia and depression. For Indian immigrant healthcare professionals, anxiety over travel restrictions and not being able to visit home and elderly parents is common. We have lost friends and co-workers to Covid and often been denied the rituals of grieving for them,” says the doctor, who has himself not been able to travel to Mumbai in the past year to visit his octogenarian parents.

Dr Dave calls himself an ‘accidental’ doctor who started his higher education journey with mechanical engineering at IIT (BHU), Varanasi. After realising that engineering and machines were not for him, Dave, son of a lawyer father and teacher mother decided to study medicine because it would connect him with people. “I had no medical role models in the family, but my parents were supportive. While studying MBBS at the Grant Medical College in Mumbai, I chose psychiatry because it involved greater interaction with people,” he added.
Moving to Wolverhampton in England in 1995 for specialised training, with his wife Ananta Dave, who is also a psychiatrist, Dave, 52, is a firm believer in a holistic public healthcare system that covers both psychiatric and physical aspects and is focussed on training medical students to engage the community in delivering person-centred services. His new responsibilities at RCPsych will include guiding education, training and qualification of psychiatrists and setting standards across the UK. “RCPsych also conducts professional exams for candidates around the world, including India; and I will be working on setting the agenda for those as well,” the dean-elect said.
With the health and well-being of doctors high on his agenda, Dr Dave walks the talk, running marathons to unwind when he is not working. He recently cycled across the length of the UK in 10 days raising funds for DoctorsInDistress and raising awareness about mental illness and suicides among the medical fraternity.