Dr Regi Tharian Alexander
2026 Presidential candidate
Dr Regi Tharian Alexander, Consultant Psychiatrist, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
Summary Statement
As a full-time practising Consultant Psychiatrist in the UK for over 25 years, these will be my priorities as your President:
- Protecting and Defining Psychiatry as a Medical Specialty.
- Fixing Recruitment, Retention, and Career Progression.
- Making the College a Practical Ally for its Members.
#LeadershipWithSubstance
Election Address
Our College must be a College of its members focused on its core purpose and not one perceived as a distant corporate body.
Its purpose is simple and enduring. First, to set clear medical standards for the practice of Psychiatry. Second, to support psychiatrists to achieve and maintain them.
Whether in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, or internationally, we are one College with one mission. As a UK College, it is natural to focus primarily on issues here, balancing them fairly across all four nations in these islands.
To deliver them, we urgently need change, a College that enthuses its membership. Change must not compromise the fundamentals of Psychiatry as a medical discipline rooted in evidence, rigour, and humane care.
As your President, I will focus on these clear priorities.
First: protecting and defining Psychiatry as a medical specialty.
I will be clear about the specific skills of psychiatrists, how standards are maintained, and who supervises who. Our patients do better when Psychiatry is practised with medical discipline and accountability. I will always defend that.
Second: fixing recruitment, retention, and career progression.
We are filling core training posts but losing doctors later in their careers.
More than half our workforce are women. Equity of attainment in careers and work-life balance will be my priority.
I will ensure fairer entry systems, stronger training pathways, and expanded routes to specialist registration including CESR. This involves priority for UK graduates alongside justice for international medical graduates already here, those who stepped in when the NHS was most in need.
Third: making the College a practical ally for its members.
I recognise the dire reality of clinical services and the moral injury it causes psychiatrists. Applicable to all specialties, the problem is particularly severe in services for children, and in adult mental health.
I will ensure practical support for members working in difficult conditions: stronger partnerships with employers, affordable CPD, smarter use of technology, and expert clinical advice including from our retired members.
I will guarantee transparent governance and more autonomy for divisions and faculties. Psychiatrists giving their time selflessly for the College require better recognition.
I will work effectively with professional bodies and government focusing on strengthening our relationships with patients and families by advocating for them.
I will make research and outcome-focused care everyone’s business, restating the values of fairness, respect, and inclusion that define our profession.
I am a consultant psychiatrist with over 25 years in the NHS and independent sector.
Having led regional and national initiatives building enduring partnerships between clinicians, researchers, patients, and communities, I stand as your candidate because psychiatric services face some of the most challenging years ahead.
We need clear, courageous, and principled leadership that will say what it believes in and acts on it.
Psychiatry, unapologetically, should be a medical specialty rooted in evidence, diagnosis, formulation, treatment, and outcomes. Our patients thrive when we practise it that way.
With integrity, courage, and passion, I believe we can do that together.
Regi Tharian Alexander | LinkedIn