VIP doctor opens a private practice in Fratton offering free advice to 'those that need it'

Doctor Ruhin Karim has returned to his Portsmouth roots from a life of luxury, acting as the personal physician to the ‘high net worth individuals’ and stars, to set up a private surgery on Clive Road, Fratton.

The practice offers a free advisory service to the elderly or those on low or no income.

‘I've had a really good life, seen the world, seen and done things that no other doctor has,’ says Ruhin.

Aside from lifelong friend and business manager Layak Muhit, the one-man practice, Regency Medical, is an ‘affordable’ private practice with a personal touch, focussing on preventative medicine.

‘For me, the advisory service is for people who want clarification on a medical condition, or just need some reassurance, especially for those for whom English is not their first language,’ he says.

Dubbed ‘Ruhin Hood,’ by high ranking Bangladeshi official and Deputy Lieutenant to the Queen, Doctor Karim has run an informal advisory service for over 20 years, offering free medical support to his community.

While born in Bangladesh, Ruhin was raised in Portsmouth as his father was one of the very first Bangladeshis in Portsmouth, moving to Alexandra Road, Landport in 1948 where Ruhin grew up since he was a year old.

‘The whole of the Bangladeshi community lived at our house,’ says Ruhin.

‘It was a bit of free service, dad would settle them in and then help find them somewhere to live,’ he adds.

47-year-old Ruhin was brought up with strong community and family values, and from the age of five, he was attending GP consultations with friends and relatives to help translate.

‘All throughout my life, what I saw my dad do was help the community.’

‘I followed suit, along with the rest of my family,’ he says.

Having completed his training in Portsmouth and London, Ruhin opened his first practice on no.10 Harley Street in 2009, as the first Bangladeshi General Practitioner to enter into the elite hub for private healthcare.

‘Back then, to get a practice on Harley Street, you had to be someone extraordinary.’

Soon Doctor Karim found himself in a ‘very niche’ market, acting as the GP to high end VIPs.

‘I’ve treated lots of famous and very well-known people – I can’t obviously name any names.’

Having worked as an exclusive physician for families of which money was ‘no object’ - Ruhin has been in some fairly extraordinary positions.

‘Not many doctors have had jets sent to pick them up and drop them off, just to come and clean someone’s ear out,’ he says.

‘I would go on yachts that had hundreds on board, just looking after one person.’

Having trained as a surgeon and further qualifying as a GP, Ruhin earned the right to work in Canada as a visiting professor, as well as being one of the first to set-up UK led family medicine in Dubai.

‘I was the GP to royalty, famous stars and dignitaries – in return I've done a lot of free work for other countries.’

‘I’ve set up clinics and sent medical aid to places like Ghana, India and Bangladesh.’

Over his years as a VIP GP, Ruhin has also provided NHS services, and like many of his fellow doctors, he found Covid-19 to be the ‘hardest’ time of his life.

‘I was on the phone 18 hours a day, to people all around the world - many didn’t make it,’ says Ruhin.

‘I bought my own PPE equipment and went round houses for reassurance, even if it meant just giving them a couple of paracetamols.’

Since his youth, Ruhin has offered services to his community, from translating at the local GP, helping locals fill out forms - and since qualifying as a doctor - offering free medical advice to anyone that may need it, out of the goodness of his heart.

He hopes to continue this with the opening of his new private practice, Regency Medical, after witnessing first hand what simple intervention can do for people.

‘I had a male come to me who was taking an oral contraceptive, thinking it was for diabetes – when he came to me three months later, he had grown breasts,’ he says.

After identifying the issue, the patient from Bangladesh - unable to understand the written labels - had mixed up his wife’s medication with his own.

A ‘simple yet detrimental’ mistake that Ruhin was able to set right, something which he says is ‘incredibly common’ as a result of language barriers and exhausted NHS surgeries.

Fluent in all Bengali dialects and having picked up other languages along the way, multi-lingual Ruhin would ‘never turn anyone away,’ despite the personal cost to his time.

‘People say to me, ‘you don’t talk like a doctor, you don’t act like a doctor, you don’t dress like a doctor, but no other doctor can be called on their mobile 24 hours a day,’ he says.

But for Ruhin, his family's values are what matter most.

‘I would never turn anyone away, I’m not rich, but whatever I have, I give.’ he says.

‘Money is not a factor for me, it’s more about what my dad told me: ‘God has made you a doctor, make sure you give back.’

After all, as the saying goes - behind every successful man, there are 18 family members.

Ruhin, from Drayton, lives in an 18-man household with not only his wife and three children, but his mother, brother, sister and their families too.

‘I don’t expect to be a multi-millionaire, all I need is my family,’ he adds.

A lot of Ruhin’s work focuses on support and reassurance for those who have nowhere else to go, something he wishes to bring with him in his new practice, which opened in September.

‘I’m a Pompey lad through and through. I'm glad to be back to my roots, back where I belong - although I never really left,’ he says.

The practice offers private GP consultations, including medicals, well-woman and well-man health checks and a religious circumcision service - with set weekly hours put aside in aid of free advisory service.

‘Medical advice can go a long way, something that’s been proven to me over the past 20 years,’ says Ruhin.

‘Really, the service is available to anyone who wants to talk to me.’

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