On Monday 20th April, the UK’s first Sikh Accident and Emergency consultant has reportedly died after contracting coronavirus at the Royal Derby Hospital.
52-year-old Manjeet Singh Riyat is the second NHS staff member to have passed off the virus within the trust. Dr. Amged El-Hawrani an ENT specialist was the first frontline worker at the hospital to die after testing positive for Covid-19 in March.
In a statement, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB) said Riyat is survived by a wife and two sons.
Riyat had joined the Royal Derby in 2003, where he became the first Sikh to be appointed as an emergency medicine consultant in the UK. He later 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.
