Health Pioneers Charity
2080. Devina Maru
Dr Devina Maru, from London, is a GP trainee who is an advocate for patients with hearing loss and co-founded ‘Health Pioneers Charity’ to tackle educational and health inequalities in deprived communities.
Devina has developed educational resources for GPs to help reduce variations in accessibility to GP practices, promotes the Accessible Information Standard and ensures hearing loss is considered across all aspects of primary care activity , including consultations and continued care. Devina has also been involved in health policy work around the future of primary care and is a co-founder of a national platform ‘The Big GP Consultation’ to discuss the future vision of general practice.
Devina’s extensive work in the education and health sectors highlighted some of the challenges faced by young people in living healthy and fulfilling lives, leading her to co-launch ‘Health Pioneers Charity’ in 2020. The charity has since collaborated with 10 organisations, and helped over 500 young people.
The charity provides educational mentorship and leadership programmes for young people, helping them to become future health pioneers of society.
The award for Devina coincides with the 75th anniversary of the NHS.
In a personal letter to Devina, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:
“It is brilliant to hear how you are using your own experiences of training to become a doctor to provide mentorship programmes for hundreds of young people pursuing healthcare careers.
“It is particularly impressive how your charity ‘Health Pioneers’ works with people from disadvantaged or ethnic minority backgrounds to improve education in healthcare and address health problems in their communities.
“I was also inspired to hear how you are an advocate for patients with hearing loss, making sure that GP services are accessible to all. And you are also helping to connect early career GPs through ‘The Big GP Consultation’ and giving them a space to support one another.”
Devina said:
“What an amazing honour to receive this Points of Light Award by the Prime Minister, I am humbled and deeply grateful. Delighted to have also received it on the NHS 75th Birthday as my voluntary work for health inequalities, young people, and those with hidden disabilities have all been done whilst working as a Primary Care Doctor.
“There are currently 12 million people in the UK living with hearing loss and I will continue being an advocate for patients to help reduce variations in accessibility to GP practices, promote the Accessible Information Standard and ensure hearing loss is considered across all aspects of primary care activity including consultations and continued care.
“Whilst working as a Doctor in London, I have seen how wider determinants of health, access to care and health behaviours have resulted in health inequalities amongst our communities. I strongly believe we must encourage and foster health promotion and have a proactive approach. It has been a great journey in co-founding ‘Health Pioneers Charity’ to address the significant health and education inequalities that exist in the most socio-economically deprived areas amongst young people. We have worked closely with communities, schools, and local authorities, providing educational, mentorship and leadership programmes for young people encouraging social empowerment and building communities.”
See more about ‘Health Pioneers Charity’ and ‘The Big GP Consultation’