Publish date: 10 January 2024
Congratulations to Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Sunita Avinash who has been appointed as an interventional cardiologist consultant at the Lancashire Cardiac centre.
Interventional cardiology deals with diagnosis and catheter-based treatments of heart artery disease.
Sunita who has been with our Trust for 20 years, is the first female in Lancashire to hold this position and becomes one of the 9 interventional consultants working at BTH.
She says “Intervention is very male dominated, but increasing numbers of female trainees are entering this sub-speciality. I am delighted to be able to stay at Blackpool in my new consultant post and be a role model for female cardiology trainees.
Having trained in India, Sunita took the CESR (Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration) route to become a cardiologist here. This pathway is known to be very self-driven and is to demonstrate equivalent training and skills to those trained in local training programs.
She is a member of the Women in Cardiology group which aims to increase the numbers of women training in cardiology and to support those who are already working within the specialty. This includes an informal mentoring process which Sunita is involved in here at Blackpool.
Sunita is extremely proud to be part of Blackpool, both as a member of the local population and the very diverse workforce. She is the very example of the trust’s strategy ‘Grow your own’. With the many years spent at this trust, she has built key relationships with different colleagues in other departments across the trust. She intends to likewise build bridges with other centres and together with her colleagues develop improved services for the local patient population.
Away from cardiology, Sunita is a keen Bollywood dancer and part of the local Indian community.
In her words, ‘’Dance keeps me smiling and happy and through our public performances. we promote diversity and bring local communities together’’.
Dr. Ranjit More (senior Consultant Cardiologist) says, ’’The Department is delighted to appoint Dr Avinash as our new Interventional cardiologist. Not only is Sunita our first female interventional cardiologist, but she is the first consultant cardiologist in Blackpool to have completed all her training at this trust. She will be an invaluable addition to the Cardiac Division.’’
