Ramani Moonesinghe

Ramani Moonesinghe is Professor of Perioperative Medicine at University College London (UCL) and a Consultant in Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine at UCL Hospitals. Moonesinghe was director of the National Institute for Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA) Health Services Research Centre between 2016 and 2022, and between 2016 and 2019 was Associate National Clinical Director for Elective Care for NHS England. In 2020 on she took on the role of National Clinical Director for Critical and Perioperative care at NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Her career has been profiled in The Lancet and BMJ and she was the Royal College of Anaesthetists' contemporary nomination for the "Women in Medicine, a celebration" exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians. and did her postgraduate training in internal medicine at Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals.

Moonesinghe has reported she was inspired by Katharine Lloyd-Williams, an anaesthetist and educationalist who oversaw the creation of the UK's first medical school completely open to both male and female students. and a NIAA Board member from 2009 until 2022. Moonesinghe was on the design team of 'Little Heroes' gowns, a 2017 BSc Product Design student's final year project; superhero-inspired hospital gowns with a detachable capes for children aged two to six.

In 2016 she was appointed Associate National Clinical Director for Elective Care at NHS England, and then National Specialty Advisor for Elective Care in 2019. In 2020 she was appointed as National Clinical Director for Critical and Perioperative Care at NHS England and NHS Improvement. In this role she supported the national NHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year's Honours List, for service to anaesthesia, perioperative and critical care medicine.