The Waiting Room is a series of short films that celebrate the extraordinary work of the NHS. The series began as an initiative organized by Dr Sukh Dubb, a trainee facial surgeon who currently works for the NHS, and has himself experienced the hardships of homelessness and grew up in poverty as a young child.
Celebrities and public figures including renowned photographer and director, Rankin, are set to appear in the series by Dr Sukh who each share intimate stories with a focus surrounding the NHS and their personal healthcare journeys.
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Dr Sukh's aim in creation of The Waiting Room is to inspire and comfort others, encouraging them not to feel alone by speaking up and through sharing their own personal journeys and stories as told through interviews with public figures and celebrities throughout this collection of short emotive films.
The films that comprise The Waiting Room will be made available to view gradually and uploaded on a new site launched today that celebrates the NHS, the staff, and their individual stories, reflecting on times of hardship as well as the global pandemic.
British photographer Rankin has shared not only the origin of his photography passions, but also the impacts and sacrifices his profession demanded. His experiences of the NHS working as a porter, as well as his NHS portraits project are discussed in the series whilst Rankin also explores his own mental health journey, and the benefits he found of seeking counseling.
Joining Rankin in The Waiting Room series is BBC Broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire, OBE, actor & comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar, author of Brick Lane & Love Marriage: Monica Ali, Professor Laura Serrant OBE, Amazon best-seller Dale Vincent, the father of Malala Yousafzai, Ziauddin Yousafzai, as well as BBC presenters Monika Plaha and Louise Stewart, to name just a few celebrity and figure participants.
Dr Sukhpreet Singh Dubb has previously spoken about his own experiences, and how he champions national widening participation programmes for other underprivileged children, and was invited to the White House, United Nations and House of Commons.
Interviews with several acclaimed surgeons, social workers, a life coach, a pioneer in IVF treatment and a few of the top 50 most influential UK GP's feature in this series.
Intense subject matter and topics are discussed in an honest manner, including but not limited to mental health, domestic abuse, breast cancer, eating disorders, stroke activism, drug use, counselling, career journeys, racism, humanitarian crises, bullying, childhood trauma, sexual abuse and gender discrimination.
Members of the public also involved with the emotive series include Waleed Khan, whom is a survivor of multiple shootings that occured in a Taliban school attack. Khan was saved and rehabilitated by the NHS, and is now an anti-radicalisation activist.
Rebecca Langley is one of many inspiring success stories also to feature in The Waiting Room, she became a Triathlon athlete after having recovered from bowel cancer, as well as multiple cardiac arrests, when also in intensive care.
A quote from Rankin taken during the series states that: “As an NHS porter I would sometimes do the night-shift and hold the crash bleep, running for crash calls, seeing people being let go who were not for resuscitation and understanding why that was.”
Interesting quotes from Professor Laura Serrant (OBE), who is included in the powerlist of the 100 most influential Britons of African/African Caribbean descent, share her powerful story as an NHS nurse. “I don’t want you to touch me, your hands are black, they are never clean.." she recalls someone saying to her on her first day as a student nurse. “In no other place have I seen the inhumanity of person to person as in AIDS care in the 80’s and 90’s” she also states.
This series featuring Rankin and in celebration of our wonderful NHS is available to view online at its official website from today.
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