The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is proud to mark South Asian Heritage Month, joining organisations across the UK in recognising the extraordinary breadth and richness of South Asian communities and the shared values that unite them.
South Asian Heritage Month runs from 1 to 31 July 2026. This year's theme of ‘Unity in diversity’ celebrates the richness of South Asian communities, spanning eight countries, hundreds of languages, multiple faiths, and millennia of shared and distinct histories, while exploring what unites them across those differences.
RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel is the first President for the RCP of South Asian heritage in its 500 plus year history reflecting the growing diversity of leadership across medicine and the wider NHS.
Professor Patel said: ‘South Asian Heritage Month is a moment to celebrate the immense contribution that South Asian doctors, nurses, researchers and healthcare workers have made to medicine in this country, contributions that have shaped the NHS from its earliest days to the present. I am proud of my South Asian heritage, I am honoured to lead the RCP at a time when we can reflect on that legacy and recommit ourselves to ensuring that every voice in our profession is heard and valued.’
South Asian doctors and healthcare professionals have been central to the NHS since its foundation in 1948, and continue to make up a significant and vital part of the medical workforce across the UK today. The RCP recognises that celebrating this heritage is not only a matter of pride, but of understanding the richness that diversity of background, culture and experience brings to patient care, medical research and clinical leadership.
This legacy stretches back further still. In April 1910, Dr Dossibai Patell, later known as Dr Dossibai Dadabhoy, became the first woman to be admitted as a licentiate of the RCP, a qualification granted without requiring candidates to sit the college’s own exams. Born and initially trained in Bombay (now Mumbai), she travelled to London to study at the Royal Free Hospital before going on to become the first Indian woman to gain a medical degree from the London School of Tropical Medicine. She returned to India to build a distinguished career in obstetrics and gynaecology, becoming one of the first doctors in the country to use radium therapy in cancer treatment, the first woman to teach at a medical college in India, and the first Indian woman to serve as president of the Association of Medical Women in India.
Her story is one of many documented in the RCP Museum's collection of pioneering South Asian physicians, alongside figures such as Dr Kadambini Ganguli and Dr Rukhmabai Raut, whose work helped open the medical profession to women across the region.
Throughout July, the RCP encourages its members, fellows and staff to engage with South Asian Heritage Month events and activities taking place across the country, and to reflect on the ‘Unity in diversity’ theme in the context of their own teams and institutions.
The RCP remains committed to championing equity, diversity and inclusion across the medical profession, and to building a college that reflects and respects the communities it serves.