Tributes have been pouring in for Manjeet Singh Riyat, an Emergency Medicine Consultant who died of coronavirus on the National Health Service (NHS) frontlines at the Royal Derby Hospital in the East Midlands region of England on Monday.
Riyat, 52, from the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, was the first Accident and Emergency (A&E) consultant from the Sikh community in the UK and was well-loved by his colleagues, who described him as the "hugely respected" father of their emergency team.
"Mr Riyat, known to his colleagues as Manjeet, was a widely respected consultant in emergency medicine nationally," Gavin Boyle, Chief Executive of the hospital, said in his tribute.
"Manjeet was the first A&E consultant from the Sikh community in the country and was instrumental in building the Emergency Medicine Service in Derbyshire over the past two decades. He was an incredibly charming person and well loved. Manjeet knew so many people here across the hospital, we will all miss him immensely," he said.
Riyat qualified from the University of Leicester in 1992 and went on to train in Emergency Medicine at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Lincoln County Hospital.
During this time, and prior to the introduction of paramedics in the region, he acted as team leader for the Accident Flying Squads at both hospitals.
Riyat was also one of the first Clinical Research Fellows in the UK and contributed to the birth of academic Emergency Medicine.
Susie Hewitt, Consultant Emergency Medicine, on behalf of the Emergency Department team at Royal Derby Hospital, said: "Despite his many achievements, Manjeet was most at home as a highly visible shop floor Emergency Medicine Consultant. He was consistently generous with his remarkable clinical knowledge to everyone in the team.
"He had that rare gift of maintaining constant joy in the intellectual challenge of clinical medicine combined with gentle kindness and compassion for his patients. He was a powerful advocate for the sickest patients and was well known for his fair, no-nonsense approach. By contrast, Manjeet could be relied upon to lift the mood with his dry humour and sense of fun."
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