NEXT GEN NABS: SONALI KINRA

What role(s) do you hold at the moment?

I was a GP Partner in Nottingham for the last 8 years and finally decided to call time on the long distance relationship with my husband who is a surgeon and moved to London in January 2020.

I am now a Salaried GP in London while I continue in my role as GP Retention lead for Nottingham & Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System.

What brings you the most joy at work?

Being a care home GP brought me the most joy at work. Whilst in Nottingham I had the responsibility to look after the residents in a 64 bed residential care home. I cherished the time with the patients, care home staff and multidisciplinary teams delivering high quality care as a team. If you are interested in reading more about it I wrote a blog for British Geriatric Society – ‘ Care Home GP- A challenge that became an opportunity to innovate’.

I moved to London just before the COVID pandemic struck and since then led the COVID preparation and response within the practice for the past 4 months. I am driven by change management processes and have been able to lead and deliver on six change management processes including daily huddles, total triage, introducing e-consult to name a few. These processes are fully embedded in practice and to see it enhance patient experience and staff well-being is most fulfilling.

What is your biggest challenge?

As GP Retention Lead my biggest challenge is to ensure that the voices of those who are marginalised are truly represented and heard. Whether this has been about shining the light on the richness of thought and experience of Mid –Career GPs, those returning to work after maternity/caring responsibility, the diversity of BAME workforce and our unsung heroes General Practice Nursing. My other personal challenge is to learn sometimes to curtail my enthusiasm. My professional and personal life ripples through with no boundaries which can be enriching yet exhausting at times.

Who do you look up to? 

Growing up my mother has been a role model for us. My mother was a teacher in a University College in India. She balanced raising three children with her professional role and never once complained about it. I guess it’s hard to name just one person as I would hope to imbibe different skills from different people. Amitabh Bachchan, the BBC actor of the millennium for his dynamic persona /oratory skills, Indira Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo for her leadership, Atul Gawande, Surgeon, Public health advocate for his ability to unite the professional world with his writings on empathy, the humility of Samantha Jones, the energy within Bob Klaber and last but not the least the ever personable Nikki Kanani.

What would you like to achieve by the end of your career?

It is important to me that I provide the best care to my patients and am invested in staff wellbeing. I would like to end marginalisation of groups and reduce the injustices faced across the population and workforce. This may seem like a tall order but I remain hopeful.

What have you learned about yourself in lockdown?

Practice makes perfect. No place for shortcuts! I am getting better at planks. I was really bad at Scrabble. My sisters have constantly been beating me on the game. Soon the tide may turn. People energise me and emotional connection keeps me grounded.

What are you reading at the moment?……and (no judgement) the last film you watched..

The online medium has certainly shortened my attention span. Conscious of this, I have set myself an achievable target of reading poetry every night from the book ‘Poem for every night of the year’ by Allie Esiri. This is a brilliant collection of English poetry. Reading this helps me find reason and stay calm. I haven’t been able to watch movies lately but thanks to Netflix and Amazon Prime and the numerous drama series to view. I recently completed watching an English language Indian drama series called ‘Made in Heaven’ directed by Zoya Akhtar. She is a celebrated, contemporary film director in Asia. This is an enlightening nine part series cleverly navigating the vagaries/complexities of human relationships seen through prism of grandiose Indian weddings.