Dr Ranee Thakar
Ranee Thakar became President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on 9 December 2022. She is a consultant obstetrician and urogynaecologist at Croydon University Hospital and an honorary senior lecturer at St George’s University of London. In recognition of her leadership, she was awarded the President’s Award for Outstanding Leadership by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin in 2023. She is the past president of the International Urogynecological Association and was awarded the Distinguished Service Award in 2022. She has received several honorary fellowships from the Indian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Japanese College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Ranee has a long-standing commitment to the RCOG, having fulfilled a number of important roles including secretary of the British Society of Urogynaecology, honorary director of conferences and council representative for South Asia.
Most recently, Ranee was the senior vice president for Global Health, from 2019-2022. Under her leadership, the RCOG global health team secured funding to implement the Essential Gynaecology Skills programme in Bangladesh and she also led the Making Abortion Safe programme, which promotes safe abortion and contraception in five sub-Saharan countries. Maintaining these programmes and expanding the RCOG’s global initiatives, to improve the health of women and girls globally is a priority for Ranee.
Ranee has a proven track record for supporting colleagues and has made ensuring racial equity within the specialty one of her Presidential priorities. She has led to the delivery of several essential initiatives including an e-learning module on tackling racism, a tool kit on differential attainment and a coaching programme to develop champions who will provide continuing support to the RCOG membership. Ranee continues to lead the RCOG’s work to tackle inequalities across women’s health.
Ranee has an impressive academic profile with over 200 publications and has made a significant contribution to improving perineal trauma outcomes by training obstetricians and midwives to provide safer maternity care for women globally. She was the clinical lead of the national obstetric anal sphincter injuries Care Bundle Project. Regionally, Ranee leads the Perinatal Pelvic Health Project and Urogynaecology network for South-West London, developing multi-disciplinary collaboration with urologists, midwives, physiotherapists, nurses and GPs.