West Lothian doctor responsible for creating successful group of nursing homes dies during family visit to India
An unassuming West Lothian GP who created a successful group of nursing homes built on an ethos of care for all, has died aged 82.
Dr Nawal Kishore Bagaria was born in Pachamba, Bihar (now part of Jarkhand), in rural north India on February 5, 1943 he passed away on March 30 this year in Kolkata, India.
He lived and worked in Livingston, and remained in West Lothian until just a few weeks before his death.
He went on to completely remodel and reopen the former Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital in Abbeyhill, Edinburgh as a private nursing home, which operated until 2011.
The hospital opened a century ago in July 1925 but closed its doors as a maternity facility in 1988. Elsie Inglis had also been born in India.
Dr Bagaria also pioneered and led the set-up of the Edinburgh Hindu Temple, which celebrated 10 years in April 2025.
Nawal Kishore Bagaria was born to Shyam Sundar and Radha Devi Bagaria, who began trading Mica following its discovery in the open air coal mines in Bihar.
He chose medicine as his path early on, and after concluding his schooling and college he became one of only the second intake of Raanchi Medical School students. On graduating he completed his internship at the prestigious Velore Christian Medical School, the only one of the 250 Raanchi graduates accepted. Whilst there he was involved in research that contributed to the design of the modern day cannula.
In 1968 his application to work in the United Kingdom was accepted and with almost no funds he initially based himself, following an initial stay in the Indian YMCA, in a guesthouse in Hampstead Heath in London.
Choosing hospital appointments with associated lodging he worked throughout the UK in London's Dulwich Hospital, Tredegar, Brighton, Birmingham and Newcastle. Although life was difficult at first as an Indian qualified Doctor he soon became appreciated and respected, and not only because he offered to work over Christmas and Easter breaks.
Wishing to work within the community he became a GP in West Lothian, a position he held for 15 years and during which he became interested in elderly care. At his initial interview with the West Lothian council, he was asked what guarantee there was that he would stay in Livingston. He responded, by committing to raising his family there and to provide for the local community for the rest of his life. He worked there till three weeks before his passing.
Dr Bagaria's interest led him to also working in the elderly care units at Bangour and St John's Hospital in Livingston where he saw for himself the need for residential accommodation for those unable to go home, as hospital beds were 'blocked' by those with nowhere to go.
In 1988, Nawal and his wife, Dr Sheela, approached the Livingston Development Corporation (LDC) for a site with the intention of providing quality care and accommodation for older people unable to live at home, no matter their background or income level. This started a commitment to providing care to all, something which never left him.
Peacock Nursing Home was the result of the LDC support, originally 40, then 80 beds, followed by Woodlands Nursing Home, which also had 80 beds, amongst the very first purpose-built accommodation in the Lothians.
The Bagarias were able to add the former Elsie Inglis Memorial Hospital to the group in the early 2000s, chosen in part because it was the first post as a Doctor that Sheela took up after their marriage in 1973 and subsequent move to Scotland.
After Sheela's death it was a comfort to Nawal that he and his daughter Ambika were able to completely re-purpose and refurbish Elsie Inglis in time for its centenary this July.
Throughout his career Nawal became well known in West Lothian and beyond for his provision of care to all, also providing employment for thousands over the years and supporting the community.
READ MORE: West Lothian schoolboy sums up how it feels after win at international maths competition
Following Sheela's request, Nawal provided the leadership vision for the setting up of the Edinburgh Hindu Temple and only stepped back as President in February this year. The couple saw the temple, not just as a religious entity but as a way to provide community, and welcome and support first generation Indians to Edinburgh and the surrounding area.
Nawal continued to work full time within the care homes, ably supported by his daughters and remained a major presence within the organisation until his recent death. He was involved with plans to provide further local authority funded places when he became ill after attending a family wedding in India and died in Kolkata. He was the first member of the family to reach his eighties.
Sheela predeceased him and he is survived by his daughters, Dr Jayshree MBE who has worked for the UK Department for International Development (now Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) and the World Health Organisation, most notably in South Sudan and in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic and Ambika, a Qualified Chartered Accountant who is the managing director of the care homes company. Nawal also has two grandsons, Taran and Khailen who loved spending time with their Nanu.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ITV News
2 days ago
- ITV News
UK-India trade deal sparks fears over access to cheap medicines for millions
A newly signed trade agreement between India and the UK has triggered concerns that millions of poor Indians may lose access to affordable life-saving medicines. Civil society groups and health experts say the UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), finalised between two countries, tilts the balance in favour of multinational pharmaceutical corporations and threatens to erode long-standing protections that have allowed India to produce low-cost generic drugs. 'This is not just about trade. It's about whether a person living on ₹200 (£2) a day can afford cancer treatment or survive tuberculosis,' said Jyotsna Singh, co-convenor of the Working Group on Access to Medicines and Treatments. At the heart of the controversy are the agreement's intellectual property (IP) provisions, which activists say may restrict the Indian government's ability to issue compulsory licences—legal tools that allow domestic companies to manufacture patented drugs at reduced prices during public health emergencies. India used this provision in 2012 to dramatically cut the price of sorafenib, a cancer drug sold by Bayer under the brand Nexavar. Generic versions slashed the monthly cost by nearly 97%, from ₹2.8 lakh (£2,600) to around ₹8,800 (£80), making it affordable to thousands. 'By discouraging compulsory licensing and promoting voluntary licences, the deal hands over control of access to medicines to the market,' said Prof Biswajit Dhar, a trade expert and former professor at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. 'Voluntary licences often come with strings attached and don't bring the same price reductions.' Weakening India's Patent Safeguards Under the FTA, companies will no longer need to report annually how their patents are being 'worked'—or used—in India. Instead, disclosures can be made every three years, and some information can be kept confidential. Activists say this undermines transparency and makes it harder to prove that a drug isn't available to the public, a key step in applying for a compulsory licence. There are also concerns the deal could open the door to 'evergreening'—a tactic in which companies make minor changes to existing drugs and claim new patents. Indian law currently limits this practice under Section 3(d) of the Patents Act, but experts warn the FTA's emphasis on 'harmonisation' of IP standards with Western countries could override such protections. 'This is effectively a backdoor entry for TRIPS-plus provisions,' said K.M. Gopakumar, co-convenor of the Working Group. 'It would push India to grant unnecessary patents, prolonging monopolies and delaying cheaper alternatives.' The Indian pharmaceutical industry supplies more than 60% of global vaccines and a significant share of affordable generics to low- and middle-income countries. Critics say the FTA may limit this capacity and ultimately have consequences well beyond India's borders. Government response The Indian government has promoted the FTA as a landmark deal that will boost exports and attract UK investment in manufacturing, services, and digital trade. Officials insist that India has preserved its ability to protect public health. But rights groups remain unconvinced. 'You cannot negotiate away access to life-saving drugs in the name of free trade,' said Gargeya Telakapalli, a public health campaigner based in Hyderabad. 'The poorest Indians—those with cancer, HIV, diabetes, or TB—are being quietly sacrificed.' Broader implications The deal follows a similar agreement India signed last year with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which also faced criticism for diluting IP safeguards. Observers say the trend may reflect a shift in India's trade policy as it seeks closer ties with Western economies. But for many in India's healthcare and legal communities, the question remains: how much access to medicine is the country willing to give up for a better trade balance? From Westminster to Washington DC - our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below...
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Daily Record
Woman given year to live after bombshell cancer diagnosis months after wedding
A Glasgow couple have been left devastated after a tragic cancer diagnosis just seven months after getting married Shweta Davis, 56, reached out to her former karate teacher Kenny Davis, 72, after she returned to Glasgow from decades abroad working as a scientific researcher. The pair quickly found love, and when the first covid lockdown was announced, just months after they started dating, Shweta, known to pals and family as Rimmy, moved in with Kenny in the countryside near Kirkintilloch. The loved-up pair married at Citation, in Glasgow's Merchant City, on Easter weekend 2023, and honeymooned at Lake Garda, Italy. But seven months later, days before their first Christmas as husband and wife, they received the heartbreaking news that Rimmy had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, reports Glasgow Live. Given just a year to live, she underwent surgery and intensive chemotherapy, butmedics found her type of cancer—known as platinum refractory—was not responding well to the treatment. Now, the couple are fundraising for a new treatment in London not yet available on the NHS. Kenny described the drug as a 'game-changer' that could afford Rimmy a good quality of life 'for years' — but the treatment costs a whopping £4,000 per month. Rimmy and her siblings began attending Kenny's karate classes in Glasgow in their late teens more than thirty years ago. However, the pair lost touch when Rimmy moved to the Netherlands and later to Finland to work as a medical researcher. After moving back to Glasgow, she came across Kenny's Facebook profile and messaged him, and they met up as friends for coffee and cinema trips. 'It was as though thirty years hadn't happened,' said Rimmy, with the pair quickly falling in love, saying: 'Everyone else could see it before us.' Kenny said: 'After a few of those dates, we both realised that maybe something a bit more interesting was going to happen.' They began dating around Christmas 2019 and, when the covid lockdown was announced just months later, Rimmy decided to move in with Kenny and his dog in Chryston, near Kirkintilloch. 'We've been inseparable ever since,' said Kenny. He added: 'Everything was looking fantastic, we were getting on really great and enjoying our lives together. And then, only seven months later, we got the devastating news.' Rimmy learned she had stage four ovarian cancer, and that she had just a year to live. This specific type of cancer, known as platinum refractory cancer, is not as responsive to traditional chemotherapy. She underwent surgery on the couple's first wedding anniversary and some of the tumour was removed, but surgeons could not completely remove the cancer. Kenny said: 'It has gone from bad to worse from there. She was undergoing weekly chemo for six months, and you can imagine how draining that was both physically and mentally, spending three days each week in the Beatson. In December 2024, Rimmy's chemotherapy was stopped as it was causing her unbearable side effects and having little effect on the cancer. A former medical research colleague told Rimmy about a new drug for platinum refractory cancers being trialled in the UK. Mirvetuximab Soravtansine was this week approved by the MHRA for use in the UK after earlier being approved by the FDA for use in the United States. The drug has not yet been approved by the NICE for use for NHS patients in England and Wales. If it is, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) will then decide on its use in Scotland. Until then, the couple must fund the life-prolonging treatment out of their own pockets but the treatment, which is given every three weeks, costs £3875, plus costs for travel to London and accommodation. The couple has raised almost £20,000 for the treatment with a fundraiser and Rimmy underwent her first round of treatment last week. Before starting the treatment, Rimmy was told by doctors that she has just months to live. Kenny said: 'But this drug is a game-changer, and she could potentially have a good quality of life for years, which is why we are desperate to have access to this for as long as possible. 'She's very upbeat and very positive, and she's doing everything she can.' At the start of the covid lockdown just months after they began dating, Rimmy left her Glasgow flat, which had no outdoor space, to move into Kenny's home out in the country near Kirkintilloch. Rimmy bought Kenny a vintage Volkswagen camper van after their honeymoon, and the pair planned to take it all across Europe. She said: 'But all this nonsense happened. Hopefully that will still happen. I keep teasing him that he thought he was getting a hot young wife, and now he's saddled with all this.'
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
Poor regulation causing hundreds of deaths from contaminated medicines globally, says WHO report
Weak regulation has allowed children's medicines like cough syrup and paracetamol to be laced with toxic industrial chemicals leading to hundreds of deaths, according to a report by the World Health Organization. Since 2022, at least 300 people – mainly children in Africa and Asia – have died from cough and paracetamol syrups containing diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG): industrial chemicals that are used to make products like brake fluid and antifreeze. The chemicals – a cheap replacement for medicinal glycol – are toxic in even small amounts and cause acute kidney damage that often proves fatal. The WHO report, released jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said 'criminal networks' were exploiting 'market volatility and regulatory gaps' to introduce these and other toxins into the supply chain in order to make quick profits. 'Most of the recent cases involve inexpensive oral liquid medicines that can be bought without a prescription,' said the report. 'In most cases these medicines were marketed specifically for children and are … available in pharmacies, medicine stores or informal street markets.' In 2022, more than 150 children died in Indonesia from consuming locally produced cough syrups that had been laced with EG. The manufacturer had marked 60,000 bottles of the lethal medication with fake labels showing only safe ingredients, the report said. In the same year, at least 66 children, mostly under the age of two, died in the Gambia from acute kidney failure after consuming cough syrup containing DEG and EG, imported from India. The medicines were produced by the Indian manufacturer, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which was later discovered to have breached numerous regulations. Two of the owners of the company received prison sentences, the report said. Over the last three years, at least five batches of lethal cough syrups have been traced back to Indian manufacturers from countries including Uzbekistan, Cameroon, and Iraq. Some were found to contain over 20 times the safe level of EG . Each contaminated medicine was produced by a different manufacturer, raising questions about the regulation of India's pharmaceutical industry. Overall, the World Health Organization said at least 1,300 people have died as a direct cause of ingesting contaminated medicines over the last 90 years, and thousands more have suffered 'life changing injuries' – mostly in the developing world. 'In many cases, contaminated medicines are the result of intentional criminal conduct. Addressing this threat requires coordinated efforts by ... law enforcement agencies, customs officials, prosecutors and anti-corruption bodies,' the report said.
