Dr Sara Ahsan

London North West

Dr Sara Ahsan works in rehabilitation medicine in Hillingdon Hospital as a speciality doctor, a post that she has held for about a decade. She works in Daniels Rehab Unit which is a 16-bed ward for patients with brain and spinal cord pathology requiring neurorehabilitation. She also runs an outpatient Spasticity clinic and has a collegiate membership in the RCP. 

Dr Ahsan is passionate about supporting the SAS doctors in career progression as well as helping them get the recognition they deserve as important senior members of clinical teams. She hopes that she will be able to support the RCP and SAS lead and her contributions to the SAS workforce will make a difference in the long term vision that RCP has for the SAS doctors working within the NHS.

Dr Naeem Aziz

SAS lead

Dr Muhammad Azam

West Midlands

Dr Somaditya Bandyopadhyay

Kent, Surrey and Sussex

Dr Jeenat Khan

Northern Ireland

Email: jeenat55@yahoo.com

Dr Muhammad Imran Khokhar

Eastern

Dr Muhammad Imran Khokhar is a cardiology physician with more than 26 years of clinical experience in cardiovascular medicine across international healthcare systems. His professional career includes practice in his country of origin, more than 12 years in the Middle East, and service within the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) since 2019.

He currently works as a specialty doctor in cardiology at Basildon University Hospital, where he contributes to the delivery of specialist cardiovascular services. Dr Khokhar has particular expertise in cardiac device implantation, supporting the management of complex cardiac rhythm conditions through modern device therapies and evidence-based clinical practice. He works closely with multidisciplinary teams to deliver safe, high-quality patient care.

Dr Khokhar is appointed as RCP SAS representative the Eastern region.

A key focus of Dr Khokhar’s professional vision is the development and recognition of specialty and associate specialist (SAS) doctors. He is committed to promoting fair access to training, clearer career development pathways, and stronger leadership opportunities for SAS doctors within the NHS.

Dr Vineet Pant

Mersey

Dr Vineet Pant is a specialist in nuclear medicine, currently working at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH), UK. He has over 18 years of independent experience in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine, including PET-CT, radionuclide therapies, and clinical leadership.

After qualifying in India and completing his DNB in nuclear medicine in 2009, Dr Pant obtained the European fellowship in nuclear medicine and undertook a Theranostics fellowship at an ENETS centre of excellence in Germany. He moved to the UK in 2021 under the MTI scheme and now works as a Specialist Doctor at RLUH, independently performing a broad range of nuclear medicine procedures, including radionuclide therapies such as radioactive iodine, Lu-177 PRRT, and PSMA therapy.

Dr Pant is actively involved in medical education, teaching doctors and fellows at RLUH and delivering lectures to MSc students at the University of Liverpool. Previously, he was a postgraduate faculty member for DNB (nuclear medicine) and IGNOU in India.

He holds several leadership roles within the department, including representing nuclear medicine in multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings and contributing to therapy planning and patient care pathways. He organised the first virtual national conference of the association of nuclear medicine physicians of India (ANMPICON 2021) and served as its secretary general from 2019 to 2021.

He has co-authored a book chapter in the springer series clinicians’ guides to radionuclide hybrid imaging and has published widely in international journals. In 2023, he was selected as a finalist for the young investigator prize at BNMS.

Dr Thea Preston

Northern

I am a specialist in general medicine working in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, as well as being co-foundation tutor here too.

I did originally did training in ophthalmology which is what brought me up to the north east from Wessex, but after a few years missed medicine so went back to medical training. I found the continuous moving from hospital to hospital, and not having a stable team, extremely difficult and so after my ACCS AM programme I made the decision to step out of training and contacted one of the places where I had spent time during my training that had felt like a good fit for me. I was very fortunate that I had support of a lot of senior colleagues to create a speciality doctor post to boost their middle grade cover which was lacking at that point in time, and so have been working here for 7 years now. During this time, I have been able to progress to autonomous practice, and have also been given opportunities in leadership and education which gives me some balance job.

I do not believe traditional training is good, or right, for everyone though it is for some - it certainly wasn't for me. I see a lot of young doctors who just don't know about an alternative, and struggle on in training. I wanted to do this role to try to raise awareness and recognition of SAS careers as an alternative that people can choose because it works for their life and gives them stability as opposed to trying to make their personal life fit around traditional training. I also feel that traditional training does not always prepare people for the non-clinical side of consultancy - in my experience being a SAS gives you more say over what you do often, and gives you the opportunities to take on education/leadership roles at an earlier stage, and so build on these more gradually.

Dr Ruford Sequeira

Wales