Bangladeshi origin British General Practitioner (GP) Dr Farzana Hussain is among 12 Covid-19 frontline workers photographed for a portrait series to mark the anniversary of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
The photographs for the NHS tribute collection were taken by celebrity photographer Rankin.
“It’s wonderful to be part of this campaign and to be photographed by Rankin. Now, more than ever it’s important that we not only recognize the vital role primary care has played in fighting this disease [Covid-19] but to also shine a light on the humanity that makes up our GP practices, community services and hospitals,” Dr Farzana said, reports the Newham Recorder
Dr Farzana has been working at Project Surgery in Newham, London since 2003. In November 2019, she was named GP of the year by UK monthly medical care magazine Pulse for managing her practice alone following the death of a senior partner.
“I am so chuffed. It’s just such a morale boost. I know we work for our patients, but something like this is just such a lovely external appreciation. I feel quite emotional. I just feel on top of the world and that response in there was just absolutely beautiful,” Dr Farzana said after receiving the award, reports Pulse.
In an interview with British weekly newspaper Eastern Eye, Dr Farzana said she had grown up around medicine, with her father travelling to the UK on a scholarship to do some post-graduate study as an anaesthetistfrom then East Pakistan in 1970.
“The war broke out in the year after and he lost his scholarship and he was left caring for a wife who was in unpaid work (was not working) and also a one-year-old son. So, he stayed [in the UK] and served the NHS as an anaesthetist for many, many years. He is now 78 and he retired when he was 60,” she said.
“As a five-year-old, I accompanied him and really enjoyed the chocolates given to me by the nurses and seeing all the patients in the ward when I was a little girl,” Dr Farzana added.
