Royal Society of Medicine elects Pakistani-origin doctor as ENT section president

LONDON: A British-Pakistani doctor has been elected as the president of the Royal Society of Medicine’s (RSM) Otorhinolaryngology (ENT) department in recognition of his services to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and medical education.

A consultant ENT doctor, Professor Dr Shahed Quraishi OBE becomes the first Pakistani ever to get appointed to this post. The RSM is one of the most prestigious organisations of senior British doctors and one of the UK’s major providers of postgraduate medical education. He is set to take his charge in London in two weeks.

Speaking to Geo.tv, Dr Quraishi said he was elected unopposed by around 500 British doctors, who are members of the ENT section. “I am humbled and honoured to have this privilege,” he said.

“Being of British-Pakistani origin, it’s a great honour for Pakistan and speaks volumes about the contribution of British Pakistani diaspora. I hope that my elevation inspires British-Pakistani children and others alike,” he said.

Dr Quraishi is an ENT surgeon who graduated from the Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan, and has been working in the UK’s NHS for nearly 31 years. Prior to that, he also studied at the Cadet College Hasan Abdal in Attock, Punjab.

He is currently a consultant at the Doncaster Royal Infirmary and, in 2016, was appointed as the first British-Pakistani surgeon as a visiting professor in China. He is also the founder of ENT Masterclass, UK, which is a free — and the world’s biggest — ENT teaching platform, currently working in 12 countries, including Pakistan, across 4 continents.

“I have extensive teaching involvement all over the world and I have chaired training events in Sydney, Berlin, London, Jeddah, Cape Town, Mumbai, Lausanne, and Hong Kong,” he said.

In November 2017, Dr Quraishi was awarded the ‘Officer of the British Empire’ (OBE) title by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace in recognition of his services to the NHS. He was also given the National Award for Clinical Excellence by the NHS in 2015.

“My nomination for the OBE title to Buckingham Palace was made by my hospital, Doncaster Royal Infirmary, and a group of ENT surgeons. The Queen asked me about my work and she asked me about pollution in London and asked what could be done to reduce emissions.

“I gave her my suggestions. She was very well-informed and having an audience with her was a great privilege,” Dr Quraishi said, adding that in the area of ENT, no other surgeon has received the OBE title in the past 40 years.

Dr Quraishi’s wife, Humaira — with whom he has two daughters — is a general practitioner (GP) doctor in Nottingham.

“My elder daughter, Natasha, is a Cambridge graduate and a junior doctor in London, while the younger daughter, Sarah, is a medical student in Nottingham.

“We have devoted ourselves to the education of our girls and helped them to make their own choices in life.”

Dr Quraishi is also known for having an extensive coin collection, including some from the time of the Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), and the Caliphates of Umayyads, Abbasids, Ottomans, Al- Andalus, and the Mughal Empire.