Royal role gives West Midlands medic ‘hope’ for region

A top medic who has been appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant in the West Midlands wants to use her role to shine a light on the ‘unsung heroes’ in her community.

Dr Sarb Clare MBE, Acute Medical Consultant at Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, said she is ‘humbled’ to be one of 10 people in the region newly appointed to the position.

The position will see her engage in a number of activities including supporting Royal visits and the armed forces, attending British citizenship ceremonies, promoting nominations for honours and encouraging charitable and voluntary work in the West Midlands.

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But she said she hopes to use the role to continue efforts to improve the life chances of people living in Sandwell and West Birmingham, deprived areas which the hospital serves.

She said: “I feel incredibly privileged and so humbled. The more I think about it the more overwhelmed I feel.

“I was approached by the Lord Lieutenant and there was an interview process. It was quite intense because he really wants to know what your core is about, your core, your purpose, your values. It’s all about integrity.

“What it’s given me is real hope of what can be done. One of the things I really want to use this platform for is for the people of Sandwell and West Birmingham who I serve.

“They inspire me. Their resilience. These people have nothing, they work hard to put bread on the table, no education, but they are surviving.

“Yet their will, their grit inspires me. I describe them as the unsung heroes.

“These people doing the voluntary work, the veterans, the teachers, those in healthcare, my nurses – these are the people that make Sandwell great.

“My position will enable me to shine a light on them. I want to uplift them, I want to give them hope and get their work recognised. Often, in these communities, they are not recognised, they are under-valued.”

Dr Clare herself grew up in underprivileged parts of Walsall – Pleck and Darlaston – and said it was important for young people from such areas to have hope.

She said: “Our phrase is ‘never forget where you come from because you don’t know where you’re going to’.

“It’s all about the future. The kids needs to see. If they can’t see it they can’t be it.

“A lot of these people are like ‘we’re poor, we’re uneducated and that’s it. That’s our life’. But no, it isn’t. You can transform your life.

“I am female, a British Indian, I have crazy, big curly hair. If they see it they can say ‘she looks like me, speaks like me and maybe I can be like that’. Often they don’t see that.”

Dr Clare has been recognised for her work addressing health inequalities and clinically led the transition to the Midland Met, which opened in 2024.

As well as state-of-the-art medical facilities, it is hoped the hospital will act as a catalyst for regeneration in the area.

Hundreds of homes are being built on the City Hospital site in Birmingham while run-down buildings around the hospital site are to be regenerated into mixed-use, including retail space.

A new bus service connecting Sandwell to the city centre has been opened up, as have cycle lanes.

Earlier this year, a learning campus opened on the site enabling nursing students from Sandwell College and the Wolverhampton and Aston universities to train, study and work there.

Dr Clare said: “The beacon of hope is the hospital and the building is theirs. The community was part of this design from the beginning to the end.

“The whole essence of this (role) is about the community and the power of what they can do together. I will just be an enabler of that.”

The other new Deputy Lieutenants in Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country are:

• Henriette Breukelaar (Birmingham) – Regional Director for the West Midlands at the Canal and River Trust, and Trustee of the Birmingham Hospice.
• Paul Faulkner (Birmingham) – co-founder of his own advisory business, Element45, Vice-Chairman of Barclays Bank in the Midlands and former CEO of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.
• Nicola Turner MBE (Birmingham) – Chief Executive of United by 2022, the legacy charity born from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
• Martin Brostoff (Solihull) – General Counsel at the Boparan Group and Chairman of Trustees for Birmingham Jewish Community Care.
• Professor Zoe Radnor (Solihull) – Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic at Aston University having held the positions of Pro Vice-Chancellor Global Academic Hubs and Pro Vice-Chancellor for the College of Business and Social Sciences.
• Garry Perry (Walsall) – Associate Director for Patient Experience at the Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare Trust Group and former Mayor, Deputy Leader and Leader of Walsall Council.