Dr Ramesh Mehta CBE, Founder and President of British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), was invited by the University of Dundee School of Medicine to deliver the inaugural Jainti Dass Saggar Lecture on 22 October 2024. This lecture is named after Dr Jainti Dass Saggar who holds a pivotal part in Dundee’s social and medical history. In 1936, Dr. Saggar became the first non-white local authority councillor in Scotland and was one of Dundee’s longest-serving council members.
Dr. Mehta’s lecture entitled ‘Diversity, Discrimination and Cracking the Glass Ceiling’ highlighted some of the challenges he faced as a BAME professional coming to the UK to work in the NHS. He also highlighted some of the work that he, as Founder and President of British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), has been doing to support and advise ‘doctors in difficulty’ and to protect the training of International Medical Graduates training in the NHS.
His lecture was extremely well received by the audience which included Dr. Saggar’s son-in-law, grandsons and long-standing family friends.