THIS distinguished medical doctor holds a number of firsts. Professor Kamila Hawthorne is the first-ever south Asian woman to become the Chair of the Roy al College of General Practitioners (RCGP). She is the college’s fifth woman Chair and also the first working GP in Wales to hold the position. A GP in Mountain Ash, South Wales, Professor Hawthorne was elected to the post in July 2022, starting her three year term in November 2022. Professor Hawthorne has been a GP for 35 years, working in Nottingham, Manchester, Cardiff and South Wales. Previously, she was Head of the Graduate Entry Medicine Pro gramme at Swansea University, and has served as Provost of the SE Wales Faculty of the RCGP and sat on the college’s trustee board and ethics committee. She was the college’s vice chair (professional development) between 2015 and 2018. Professor Hawthorne is on the trustee boards of the Kings Fund and Car diff Women’s Aid. She is an examiner of the postgraduate medical qualification MRCGP, a Bevan Commissioner, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. In 1970, Professor Hawthorne and her family relocated to Britain from Tanzania. She qualified from Somerville College, Oxford University, in 1984, and completed her GP training in Nottingham in 1988.

Her research and clinical working interests have been in health inequalities and access to health services, with a focus on diabetes. Her MD was based on working with minority ethnic community patient groups with Type 2 diabetes in Nottingham, Manchester and Cardiff. “I’m passionate about supporting patients to get the care they need, particularly the most vulnerable,” she said. Addressing the RCGP annual conference in Glasgow in October 2023, Professor Hawthorne restated her commitment that she would “do everything” she could during her tenure as RCGP Chair to represent the views