Manjeet Singh Riyat, 52, was described as ‘father of the emergency department’ at the Royal Derby hospital

This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

The UK’s first Sikh accident and emergency consultant has died at the hospital where he worked after contracting coronavirus.

Manjeet Singh Riyat, 52, who died on Monday at the Royal Derby hospital, was described as “widely respected” by colleagues in the NHS nationally.

In a statement, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB) said Riyat had a wife and two sons whom he was “fiercely proud of”.

Gavin Boyle, the trust’s chief executive, said Riyat, was “an incredibly charming person and well loved” and “was instrumental in building the emergency medicine service in Derbyshire over the past two decades”.

He said: “Manjeet knew so many people here across the hospital, we will all miss him immensely. On behalf of everyone here at UHDB, including our patients and the communities we serve, I would like to offer our sincere condolences to his family.”

Riyat qualified from the University of Leicester in 1992, before going on to train in emergency medicine at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Lincoln County hospital.

He joined the Royal Derby in 2003, where he became the first Sikh to be appointed as an emergency medicine consultant in the UK.

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His colleague Susie Hewitt, who is also an emergency medicine consultant at the hospital, said Riyat was one of the first clinical research fellows in the UK and is credited with contributing to the birth of academic emergency medicine.

He became head of service for the hospital’s emergency department in 2006, and had been a chair for both the medical advisory and medical staffing committees.

Riyat also worked as an educational supervisor to regional emergency medicine trainees, as well as a college examiner for the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

Hewitt said: “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.

“For many, Manjeet was considered the father of the current emergency department in Derby and many more will reflect on how his inspiration has shaped their own careers.”

Riyat’s death is the second of a staff member within the NHS trust. Dr Amged El-Hawrani, 55, who was an ear, nose and throat specialist, became the first confirmed hospital frontline worker to die after testing positive for Covid-19 in March.

Many of Riyat’s colleagues have paid tribute to him on social media. Cathy Winfield, executive chief nurse at UHDB, said on Twitter she had been “absolutely gutted” and “devastated” to hear the news of his death.

Taj Hassan, an emergency medicine consultant at Leeds Teaching hospitals, said he had known Riyat for 25 years. He described him as “a beautiful, big-hearted soul with passion for his team and his specialty”.

On Monday, a nursing website said that at least 100 health and care workers in the UK had died of coronavirus.

Nursing Notes, a platform run by nurses, has been recording the deaths of nurses, doctors, porters and members of other professions since the outbreak began.

The news came after hospital leaders criticised the government over the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).