Health & Education

Prem Sharma has been involved with the Royal Berkshire Trust Hospital for many years on a voluntary basis, being elected Chair of the Trust Patient Panel for several years.

He writes: “RBH is dear to me. The team of consultants and staff have treated me on many occasions for my frequent ailments, some of them life-threatening. I have also served for twenty years as Chair of the Patient Panel. I currently serve as a volunteer and am also part of Clinical Governance of Gastroenterology. I sit as a member of the Hospital Building Programme and am an adviser to the Hospital Charity.
So I know RBH well and am passionate about it.”

He has researched and written papers on health and the future of the NHS.

A community-based Integrated Pain Service in Berkshire

Is the Source of Funding for the NHS Sustainable?
- Some Additional Options for Consideration, May 2014, Revised Nov 2016

He has been deeply concerned for education for peace and a healthy lifestyle, urging that children and young people should learn, from primary school onward, about how to live as good citizens, in good relations with others of all communities of different faiths and cultures.

Educational materials were produced for better understanding and relationships between communities, such as 'Friends, Strangers, Citizens' (produced by South Asian Development Partnership) and 'Things Do Change' (produced by Calderdale Council).

These were used effectively and were also shown to the Department for Education, as well as to the Shadow Education Secretary. They agreed their value and planned to use them but were unable to follow up, for various reasons.

Dr Sharma commented, 'I believe if these materials had been incorporated into the schools' curriculum and taught at all levels, over the past ten years, we would see a difference today. Many of the current issues we are now facing reflect the fact that young people have not been taught sufficiently how to relate to people of different backgrounds, and how to understand cultures and faiths.'

Along with the material on cultures and faiths, Dr Sharma also produced material on smoking and the use of drugs.