Dr Sarb Clare, Deputy Medical Director and Acute Medical Consultant at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, has been named as the new President of the West Midlands Physicians Association (WMPA). Dr Clare takes over from Prof. Kiran Patel.
Dr Clare is clinically leading the hospital move to the new acute hospital in Birmingham, the Midland Metropolitan. She is the NHSEI Midlands Regional Advisor for Acute Internal Medicine. She was the first appointed Acute Physician at City Hospital in 2008 where she set up Acute Medicine from infancy and she has been pivotal in developing acute medicine regionally and nationally.
She has been commended nationally and internationally on many services she has created by the RCP (Royal College of Physicians) and SAM (Society Of Acute Medicine). Her work has included junior doctor well being securing the HPMA Bevan Brittan 2020 Award. In 2021, she was highly commended by HSJ as Clinical Leader of the Year and won first prize for Innovation and Improvement Champion by West Midlands Academic Health Science Health Network on her POCUS work.
She is a national and international pioneer in Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) which she lectures and teaches on nationally. She runs a yearly course “Ultrasound at the Front Door” and has created many free online learning tools and released her first medical book “Ultrasound For the Generalist – A Guide to Point of Care Imaging” with Cambridge University Press in 2021. She is now taking POCUS out into the community with her Hospital At Home project called EPICENTRE which was shortlisted for a HSJ award in 2022 and awarded the Midlands Parliamentary NHS award in 2022.
She is very passionate about leadership, gender and diversity workplace balance as well as widening participation. She was awarded the President’s award in 2021 by the Birmingham Chambers of Commerce for her leadership. She leads a Women Empowering Women movement within medicine, hosts a podcast and has delivered a TEDx Talk that aims to empower all to be the best version of themselves.
In 2024, she became President of the West Midlands Physicians Association – the first female President since the inception in 1950.
In 2020, she was awarded an MBE Queens Honor for her service to the NHS and her leadership during the pandemic.
In her free time, she loves to run and ran her sixth Marathon in Berlin in 2023 raising money for the hospital charity MMUH and Doctors in Distress. She is a flamenco dancer at intermediate level and has two young boys who keep her on her toes.
Commenting on her appointment as WMPA President, Dr Clare said:
“I am delighted to be announced as the President of the West Midlands Physicians Association (WMPA). It is humbling to carry this baton on from so many great inspirational physicians; many of whom I have had the pleasure to work with, learn from and master the craft of medicine.”
“As the first female President since the inception of WMPA in 1950, this is a pivotal time for the association. I am dedicated to ensuring we keep our principles of advancing internal medicine and promoting friendship amongst physicians as prime, whilst also ensuring we promote diversity and representation from all colleagues creating safe and rich conversations amongst our fabulous West Midlands family of physicians.
“Serving our people and providing high quality care whilst upskilling, teaching and inspiring our physicians of today and tomorrow is our core purpose. I am really looking forward to the journey ahead of the many educational and networking events we have planned for the coming years.”