Asif Qasim

Dr Asif Qasim, consultant cardiologist, is committed to transforming healthcare to improve quality,safety and efficiency.

Having completedspecialist training in cardiology in the United Kingdom, including a PhD inCardiovascular Biology at Cambridge University, he undertook a fellowship ininterventional cardiology in Milan under the supervision of Dr Antonio Colombo. The expectation was that, in view of hisacademic pedigree and interventional skills, he would take up an academicinterventional cardiology post at a tertiary cardiac centre. Instead of this DrQasim chose to join the cardiology team at Mayday Hospital in Croydon.

He was under noillusions about the scale of the task there. “Mayday had a reputation for beinga fiercely busy hospital, with a high burden of disease, and areas of severesocial deprivation. There was a busy cardiology unit, with some great peopleworking very hard, but a lack of vision and clinical leadership. “

Appointed as aconsultant cardiologist at Mayday and King’s College Hospital in 2008, hebecame Lead Consultant Cardiologist a year later. Within cardiology heinitiated a clinical governance program and a range of measures aroundperformance and quality. His initiatives significantly reducing waiting times forinpatient angiography. His reorganization of invasive procedure scheduling hasboosted cardiac catheter lab utilization leading to an annual increase of 20%in PCI procedures while allowing staff members to work normal 9 to 5 workinghours.

Dr Asif Qasimdevised and designed Croydon Heart Centre, a project he initiated in 2009. Abrand new cardiac catheter suite and day ward opened in June 2011 - threemonths ahead of time and under budget. The new outpatient clinic andnon-invasive centre are due to be completed in 2015, providing newopportunities for one-stop clinics, marked the final phase of this landmarkproject.

In 2010 Dr Qasimwas lead clinician for Mayday Hospital’s successful bid to run community healthservices in Croydon. This brought around 1000 additional staff and £50mrevenue, and led to the formation of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. This isone of the few vertically integrated healthcare trusts in the UK, and Dr Qasimhas been instrumental in a range of integrated care pathways with specialistnurses providing seamless care for patients between home, community andhospital.

The CHS clinicaldirectorates were restructured in 2011 and Dr Qasim took up the post ofClinical Directo