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Partner Organisation

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) was founded in 1996 with the initial aim of supporting international medical graduates. BAPIO has grown in stature and influence to become one of the largest organisations of its type in the country.

BAPIO collaborates with all the UK Healthcare stakeholders to monitor, highlight and address the difficulties faced by doctors and ensure positive systems are in place to support healthcare workers. The organisation engages in charitable activities focused on supporting disaster events globally, and has carried out many campaigns against discrimination in education, training, and career progression.

Dr Ramesh Mehta CBE, MD, FRCP, FRCPCH, FHEA, DCH | President of BAPIO

British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO)

Dr Ramesh Mehta has worked in the NHS for 36 years and retired as a Consultant Paediatrician from Bedford Hospital in 2017. He is a former Hon. Consultant in Paediatric Rheumatology at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. He has been a postgraduate clinical tutor for Cambridge Deanery; a principal regional examiner for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; a PLAB examiner for the General Medical Council; an Undergraduate Speciality Tutor for Cambridge University and University College London. He was an instructor for Advanced Paediatric Life Support training.

Dr Mehta has been a national and overseas examiner for MRCPCH. He has been an elected member of the council of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2004-09) and Vice-Chair MRCPCH Part 2 Board. He chaired the Paediatric development group, Eastern Region. He was the Strategic lead for South Asia for the RCPCH (2014-2020). He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK (FHEA). He was HSJ’s top 50 BME leaders in the NHS for 3 years in 2013, 2014 and 2021. He was also HSJ’s top 100 clinical Leaders in the NHS in 2014. He has been awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

He was recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2017 with an appointment as the officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) for services to the NHS. In the King’s New Year Honours list 2023, Dr Mehta has been awarded Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) for services to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. Dr Mehta is the founder and president of the British Association of Physicians of
Indian Origin (BAPIO). It has now become the biggest and most influential organisation of Ethnic Minority doctors in the UK. He is the Past President of the Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (GAPIO) representing an estimated 1.4 million Indian doctors practising worldwide.

 

Dr Indranil Chakravorty MBBS, PhD, FRCP | Chair of BAPIO Institute for Health Research

British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO)

Dr Indranil Chakravorty is a Consultant in Acute & Respiratory Medicine at St George’s University Hospital, London and Director of Medical Education. He is a Senior Lecturer at St George’s University of London and School of Postgraduate Medicine at University of Hertfordshire.

He has a strong passion for medical education and expertise in quality assurance, governance and strategic leadership. He was the regional training program director for core medical training in South West London (2010-2015), followed by his role as the Deputy Postgraduate Dean in North London for Health Education England (2012-20). He has been a member of the question writing group for MRCPUK and chair of UK and International MRCP PACES examinations for the Royal College of Physicians of London. He was awarded the Royal College of Physicians London – President’s medal in 2019, for promoting excellence and quality assurance of medical education. He has conducted peer reviews of postgraduate education (HEE, London) and Faculty of Medicine at University of West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago (2018).

He has research interests, publications and international lectures in the following areas:

  • Health economics, diffusion of innovations and health services research (Doctor of Philosophy, University of Warwick);
  • Respiratory diseases – he has designed, raised funding and conducted research in sleep disorders, respiratory infections, asthma, COPD, mucociliary clearance (East & North Herts NHS Trust/ University of Hertfordshire 2005-10);
  • Medical education including technology enhanced learning (Heath Education England & St George’s University of London); and
  • Promoting patient safety and reducing harm by team building, tackling undermining and differential outcomes in the NHS (HEE, North London).

Dr Chakravorty is a keen photographer, a proponent of Indian music, a playwright and director of Shakespearean plays. He has organised national conferences as Convenor for BAPIO (2019) and Medical College Ex-students’ Association, UK (2015-16). He has a passion for writing and has developed the online journals for BAPIO as one of the Editors-in-Chief of Sushruta Journal of Health Policy & Opinions and The Physician.

Dr Chakravorty qualified (MBBS) as a doctor from the Kolkata Medical College, University of Kolkata, India in 1992 and moved to UK in 1994.

 

Dr Sunil Daga MBBS, MRCP, PhD | Secretary of BAPIO Institute for Health Research

British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO)

Dr Sunil Kumar Daga holds the position of Consultant Nephrologist and Transplant Physician at St James's University Hospital, which is part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Additionally, he serves as an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds and is a deputy lead for renal theme at NIHR MIC (Leeds). He is academic lead for foundation doctors in training at Yorkshire and Humber HEE and look after trainees at Medical schools across Sheffield, Leeds and Hull/York. Recently, he completed Health Equity Fellowship at West Yorkshire and taken over lead for chronic kidney disease at West Yorkshire ICB.

Dr Daga's involvement extends to being an honorary scientific advisor for Kidney Research Yorkshire charity and an honorary medical advisor for South Asian Health Action charity. He is also a member for Clinical study group- Transplantation and UKODTRN. He is a scientific advisor and founding member of BAPIO Institute of Health Research (BIHR).

Dr Daga's research focuses on reducing health inequalities  and uses range of methodology to achieve this from data analytics and machine learning techniques to develop predictive models, qualitative research and laboratory techniques. He is particularly interested in studying the impact of ethnicity on medical outcomes and exploring innovative diagnostic tools for assessing antibodies in organ transplant procedures. As of 2023, his h-index, a measure of research impact, is 13 with over 960 citations.

Dr Daga has actively participated in various initiatives related to living kidney donation. He was a member of the Living Transplant Initiative and played a co-leading role in community projects aimed at improving living kidney donation among South Asians. Furthermore, he has made significant contributions to the parliamentary committee for organ donation and has been involved in devising strategies to increase organ donation rates in Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. Dr Daga has also supervised a master's project, conducted in collaboration with NHS Digital and the University of Manchester, which explored the influence of ethnicity on outcomes for living kidney donors in the UK. Currently, he is collaborating with the Centre for Decision Research at the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences to investigate decision-making processes regarding living kidney donation among ethnic minority patients.

In addition to his work in the field of transplantation, Dr Daga is co-supervising a project on mathematical modeling at the School of Engineering, University of Warwick. This project focuses on studying outcomes after antibody incompatible kidney transplantation. He also has a keen interest in applying novel diagnostic tools to assess the risk stratification for antibody incompatible kidney transplantation.

As a principal and sub-investigator at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Dr. Daga actively supports clinical trials within the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) portfolio, as well as commercial clinical trials.