Dear BIPA members,

Warm greetings of the season. I am writing to update you with the progress we have made in the first 3 months after I have become the Chairperson of BIPA.

1) My first task has been to outline a clear vision for BIPA. The phrase "Fairness and Responsibility' captures this vision. Overseas trainees continue to have far poorer rate of success at CASC exams and Consultants of India origin are underrepresented in Clinical Excellence Awards and overrepresented in referrals to the GMC and in suspensions. The problems that BME patients face in accessing services are well known. The prime task that I have set for BIPA is to bring about fairness in these various domains. Here's the link that provides more details about "Fairness and Responsibility".

2) The issue of fairness was tested within the first month of my Chairmanship. Some of you may be aware that the Royal College had placed a limit on the life time validity of a pass in MRCPsych Part I exam. This was applied retrospectively and unfairly discriminates against female and part-time trainees as also against overseas trainees. BIPA took a robust stand against the College on this issue along with our partner organisation BPPA. Here's the link to the letter that I wrote to the CEO and the President of the RCPsych. I have also written to the RCPsych Ethics Committee as I feel that the College's stand is highly unethical. Here's the link to that letter.

You will be pleased to know that following our intervention the College has suspended this ruling pending a review by the Education, Training and Standards Committee. The College (and the NHS) gains to the tune of £200,000 in saved training costs with each overseas trainee and yet there seems to be little investment in ensuring equity for them (and that's all we ask for- a level playing field)! Please email us at (tc@bipa.org.uk) to demonstrate your support for BIPA on this issue.

3) I have now written to the Dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists asking for more information on the poor pass rate for IMGs (International Medical Graduates) and also about the poor ARCP reviews for IMG trainees. If this is something that has affected you or if you feel that this is an area where you can help BIPA please contact us at (tc.bipa.org.uk)..

4) Dr. Nimmagada Rao (BIPA secretary) and I attended the 2nd Global Health summit in Delhi, in Jan 2010. At this summit, BIPA agreed to facilitate a learning objective focused curriculum for medical students at Seth GS Medical College, Mumbai, in conjunction with the Dept. of Psychiatry, KEM Hospital. We have submitted the protocol to the local Ethics Committee. As part of this programme, BIPA will be conducting a "Train the Trainers" workshop in Mumbai in December. Those wishing to know more about this programme or other link projects with India please contact us on..(tc@bipa.org.uk).

5) BIPA's role with the BME communities locally has been somewhat limited. This is particularly sad considering the well-documented difficulties in accessing psychiatric help. I feel that BIPA has a role to play, indeed a responsibility to engage with the BME communities in the UK. I am aware that some of you are doing laudable work with BME communities and I wish to bring this under one umbrella. I will be publishing a strategy document shortly. All those interested in contributing to this work please contact me on..( prc@bipa.org.uk)

6) We had a very successful Annual Conference on 5th-6th June 2010. The CPD programme was of the highest quality. If you were unable to attend here's the link to the programme and the talks. We will be starting work on the next meeting scheduled …June 2011. If you would like to involved in organising the meeting or contributing as a speaker/workshop please contact us on…(sc@bipa.org.uk )

7) An important element of all our activities is the "service" element. BIPA office bearers and Executive Committee members and indeed our members involved in BIPA activities do so as volunteers and without claiming any expenses. BIPA's portfolio of activities is very much charitable in nature. BIPA has therefore decided to apply for charitable status. If any of you can help BIPA in the application process please contact..(newec@bipa.org.uk)

8) As you can see from the above notes, there's a lot happening in BIPA. I am aware that many of you have stayed away for one reason or another- reasons that I have been told include – "old boys' network, politics, social organisation etc. etc. "

The "responsibility" part of my message means that BIPA is committed to removing the labels attached above. BIPA is completely transparent. You, as a member, will be able to attend Executive Committee meetings and the minutes will be posted online. Our accounts are available if you would like to see them.
I have created specific workgroups to deal with the issues outlined above. Each workgroup will produce a list of target outcomes and a time line for the same. The details of these work groups with their emails are available at…..You can become involved by a) joining the workgroups or b) joining the conversation about BIPA's work on Facebook or by joining our yahoo group.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Subodh Dave,
Chairperson, British Indian Psychiatric Association
Dated : 2nd Sep 2010.

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Fairness And Responsibility

 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Fifteen years of BIPA and we are still going strong. Our membership makes us the second largest organisation of psychiatrists in the UK. Our CPD programmes over the years have been much appreciated and BIPA has mentored countless number of young psychiatrists of Indian origin.

Many younger psychiatrists ask me “Why should I join BIPA?” I think it is a fair question and I would like each of you to be able to answer that question with confidence. The answer is Fairness and Responsibility.

Fairness:

1)    Patients: While ethnicity monitoring has improved access to treatments such as psychotherapy remains poor. Language barriers to treatment also persist.

2)    Trainees: Pass rates at the MRCPsych exams for non-UK trained trainees remain very low compared to UK-trained trainees. Similar issues at core and specialty trainee interviews. The Treasury saves£200,000 per international trainee yet concrete support for our trainees (whether failing or poorly performing) is lacking.

3)    Specialty Doctors: Article 14 remains very arduous and laborious. IMGs (International Medical Graduates) remain vastly over-represented in this grade and career progression for many is poor. College’s exam policies are also perceived as being unfair by career grade doctors.

4)    Consultants: Vastly overrepresented in referrals to National Clinical Assessment Service. Under-represented in higher management positions and in Clinical Excellence Awards.

5)    India: For each of us trained in India, effectively the Government of India has gifted £200,000 to the UK government. While UK has 14 psychiatrist/100,000 population, India has 0.4/100,000. Suicide rates in India are 100/100,000 population- more than 10x the rate in the UK. Of the 275+ medical colleges in India, the vast majority do not have effective and adequate psychiatric education.

Responsibility:

I see it as BIPA’s responsibility to deal with the unfair issues listed above. I also believe that as office-bearers of BIPA, we are accountable to our members and our members have a rightful expectation of concrete action on each of these issues.

What you can expect from BIPA

1)    Benchmarks: Within 100 days, a concrete action plan, with identified bench marks to get a true Fair Deal for our members. 3 monthly reports to follow. 

2)    Transparency and Accountability: All BIPA Executive Committee (EC) meeting minutes will be available on our web page. All BIPA EC meetings will be open to members. Each EC member’s attendance record and their contribution to the BIPA agenda will be available on our web page. Members will be and I hope you will hold the office bearers accountable.

3)    Better communication: BIPA’s strength is its loyal membership. Our work can progress further only if there is greater engagement with the wider membership. We have launched a Facebook page and aYahoo Group.

What is BIPA already doing:

1)    We are surveying ALL the deaneries to get an accurate picture of how international trainees are performing at a) MRCPsych exams and at b) Core and Specialty trainee interviews.

2)    Clinical Excellence Awards workshop

3)    Support for Article 14 doctors

4)    Mentoring for trainees in difficulty

5)    Link project with KEM Hospital, Mumbai to design and deliver a skills and competency focused curriculum in semi-urban and rural medical Colleges.

6)    Collaboration with BAPIO and lobbying the Royal College and BMA

 

There is clearly a lot more to be done and I can promise you that the above list will get longer next year. But this is not possible without your involvement.

What You Can Do:

1)    Log on: www.bipa.org.uk - the web site will have information on our agenda, copies of minutes, membership forms, details of our training programmes/conferences, up dates on link projects with India etc. 

2)    Facebook: Add BIPA

3)    Spread the word: Talk to ONE person about BIPA - direct them to our web site. If they like what we are doing, they can join us.

4)    Participate in our surveys: Over the next few months, we will be conducting on-line or email surveys about some of the issues highlighted above. Please participate! Remember strength in numbers!

5)    Attend BIPA conference: Attend a great CPD event and have fun too!

 

I hope that this energises you to join us in changing things. As Gandhiji said

 “Be the Change You Want To See”