Dipak Ray obituary

Dipak Ray
Dipak Ray promoting an equal opportunities campaign with the then TUC general secretary Len Murray

Dipak Ray, who has died aged 82, was a popular and innovative family doctor who was among the pioneers of patient involvement in the running of surgeries. He was also heavily involved in medical politics and campaigning against racism.

Dipak represented the radical Medical Practitioners' Union on the British Medical Association's general medical services committee from the early 1970s to the late 80s. He had a regular column in the magazine Doctor and wrote for Tribune. He was one of the first doctors to state publicly that there was racism in the medical profession. He was also a prominent member of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs and a TUC delegate for many years, moving motions on healthcare. In 1974, for instance, he demanded an end to private treatment in NHS hospitals.

Dipak was born in Cuttack, in Orissa, India. His family was involved in the campaign for independence and Dipak was arrested at the age of 11 for distributing anti-British leaflets. He underwent his medical training in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and came to work in the UK in the late 1950s after a stint in the US. He said he could not adapt to the American healthcare system and was attracted by the NHS's aim of providing a uniform standard of care to all patients. He went to work as a GP in south Wales in the early 1960s, eventually settling in Blackwood, Caerphilly.

Dipak was a dedicated anti-racist campaigner, taking part in marches, running educational sessions on racism and becoming a commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality. It was in this capacity that he became involved in the controversy concerning Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988). Dipak argued that further copies should not be printed, but that the book should not be banned. As a result, he received threatening phone calls.

He advocated dialogue over confrontation and never lost his sense of humour. He liked to recall that, when he was working as a hospital doctor, he told a consultant who complained that Indian doctors took sick leave to watch cricket that "they must be sick if they are watching English cricket".

Dipak is survived by a son, Indranil, and two grandchildren, Shonali and Mitali. His wife Rekha, a teacher and also a committed socialist, predeceased him.

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