A TIRELESS campaigner, Dr Chaand Nagpaul’s passion for narrowing the racial inequalities in medicine, health and other sectors in Britain has become the stuff of legend. Last year, he stepped down as chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), but his workload shows no signs of abating. He started his three-year term on the national council of the Royal College of General Practitioners in November 2023, and serves actively as a board member of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, an independent body which tackles health inequalities among people of colour.
“I’ve spoken at several national conferences in the past year on behalf of the Race Observatory, and in particular highlighting the cost of racism in the NHS, and why tackling inequalities in health is vital for the sustainability of the NHS,” he told the GG2 Power List. The pioneer – he was the first person of col our to lead the BMA in its 192-year history – is a champion of what he describes as his “calling” – making lives better.
And, a lot has changed since he graduated in 1985. “I must continue to campaign for equality, but I do believe that we are making progress,” he said. “When I started out in medicine, issues around race weren’t even talked about. There was no cultural awareness of the different ways in which diseases affected different communities. And as for inequalities amongst the NHS workforce, basically there was just silence.” “We have progressed a long way, and what I feel now is that there should be no let up until the NHS actually lives up to its founding principles, which is a principle of equality, and equality that must not only apply to the population it serves, but also apply to its own workforce. “This is something that I feel determined to be part of. What I would like to see is very real progression and measurable change. In the next decades, I have to believe that that will happen, because my motivation, and my efforts, my sense of purpose comes from the be lief that things will have to change.
” He continues to serve as the chair of the BMA’s Racial & Ethnic Equality Forum, which he created during his stint as BMA chair. “This forum is important because ethnic minority doctors suffer far greater levels of employment related difficulties, career progression issues, contractual issues, where terms are not met. They need to know they’re being rep resented by their national body. We’ve engaged in providing advocacy to thousands of minority doctors,” he said. His father, Lalit, was an entrepreneur who ran a successful photography business and ga rage in Kenya.
But by 1968 his parents realised that east African leaders would soon expel Asians, and his father made his way to Britain. Like thousands of other south Asians, he would work hard to save money to bring his wife and two children to Clapham in London. They were the only non-white family on their street, and when he went to school, Nagpaul was the only person of colour, and that was not easy in those days. “There was the National Front that wanted Britain to be white. I remember one occasion where I was being chased by two skinheads and I remember just getting to the home, opening the door quickly with my key and banging it shut, and then panting with relief, that some how, I had escaped from being attacked. That was the reality of the day,” he recalled. After A levels he won a place at the prestigious St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Armed with a medical degree, Nagpaul decided he wanted to be a GP. Yet, nine times he faced rejection without interview. “I went to my GP tutor, and he said, ‘it’s your name, that’s the problem’.
It hadn’t even dawned on me that there could be a selection process that disadvantaged me because of my name,” he said. However, Nagpaul’s inability to accept defeat led him to do something few others in his position would do. “What I did for the tenth application is, I went to Charing Cross Hospital for the training scheme, I knocked on the door of the consult ant who was responsible for shortlisting and I said, ‘you don’t know me. I’m Dr. Chaand Nagpal. I’m a junior doctor, but I want to be GP and train in your medical school. I want you to know who I am. Here’s my CV. Please open the envelope, read it, because I really want to be a GP’. And I was shortlisted, and I’m convinced that it was because he saw the face behind the name.” Nagpaul remains passionate about the NHS, and his heart lies with the GPs and the pressures they face on a daily basis. He was elected chair of the Harrow local medical committee (LMC) in September 2023. This January he became the chair of north west London LMC, representing GP practices on the integrated care board. “I’m campaigning for improved digital technology, support and innovation in general practice, because we’re working in an archaic way,” Nagpaul told the Power List. “I’m very much influencing a lot of change there. Sitting on the board will help to get rid of a lot of the bureaucracy and administrative barriers between general practice and hospitals so that we have a seamless service.” The three practices of which he is a partner with his wife, Meena, are also part of a pilot to ensure patients get to see a doctor on the same day they call.
“My wife is the actual person leading as the clinical director,” he said. “It’s just gone live in a separate building, called a hub. Patients from all three practices will be able to call, and their practices will say you can attend the hub to be seen same day for acute minor illnesses, like a chest infection, or tummy pain, all the things that people need attention for.” Nagpaul told the Power List that one of his biggest concerns is the lack of culturally competent services for patients of colour. “Our health service isn’t very sensitive to issues such as women may have issues about presenting gynaecological complaints to a male doctor.
There isn’t enough understanding,” he said. “I was looking at the national data of satisfaction rates amongst different ethnicities, and south Asians are the least satisfied in the ability to make a GP appointment or feel listened to or feel understood. This is something again, through the Race Observatory, we’ve got to start looking at.” This doctor is influential, and you are left with the impression that he will continue to use it to effect real change for the advantage of his patients, colleagues and communities.