Saleyha Ahsan
Ahsan in 2013
Born
Barking, London, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Dundee School of Medicine
Occupation(s)Medical doctor, filmmaker, presenter
Known forTrust Me I’m a Doctor, reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic

Saleyha Ahsan is a British physician, presenter and journalist. She has worked as a humanitarian doctor in conflict zones and as an A&E doctor in the UK, presented programmes including Trust Me I’m a Doctor and reported on conflict, social affairs, medicine, healthcare and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early life

Ahsan was born c. 1970 in Barking, London. Her mother was born in Kenya and her father was born in Pakistan but lived in India before arriving in the UK.[1] She is the eldest of six siblings, all of whom have pursued careers in the National Health Service.[2]

Career

Ahsan graduated with an undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Salford.[1]

She was the first British Muslim woman to attend the integrated male and female Royal Military Academy Sandhurst's Officer commissioning course.[3] She achieved the rank of Captain in the British Army, and served in Bosnia as part of the NATO stabilisation force,[4] completing three years in the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Medical Support Officer.[1]

Ahsan qualified as a doctor (MB ChB) in 2006 at the University of Dundee School of Medicine, and gained her LLM in International Human Rights Law and Humanitarian Law in 2011.[1] She worked as a humanitarian doctor in Libya during the Arab Spring in 2011, and then in Syria in 2013.[5][6][7]

She works as an Accident and Emergency doctor in Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital, in Bangor, North Wales.[8][9]

Media and presenting

In 2008 her short film My Mother’s Daughter won Best European Film at Los Angeles film festival, Pangea.[10] In 2018 she appeared on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls on Channel 4.[11]

Ahsan has presented a number of programmes for Channel 4 and the BBC on the COVID-19 pandemic, including Dispatches - Coronavirus: Can Our NHS Cope? and What’s It Like to Catch Coronavirus? (Channel 4) and The One Show, Panorama, Newsnight, Trust Me I’m a Doctor and Horizon (BBC).[4][10][12] She has also worked for The Guardian and ITV.[13][14] In mid‑January 2022, Ahsan wrote dismissively about the unfolding British government partygate crisis from the perspective of a doctor working in emergency medicine during the UK covid pandemic.[15]

Politics

Ahsan was a UK European Union Party list candidate for the London constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election.[16][17] She was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Milton Keynes South constituency in the 2019 general election.[18] She is a Liberal Democrat candidate in 2022 elections for Mayor of Newham.[19]

COVID-19

Ahsan filmed her experiences during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom for the Channel 4 programme Condition Critical: One Doctor’s Story.[20][21] During this period, Ahsan lost her father, Ahsan-ul-Haq Chaudry, age 81, after he contracted COVID-19.[2][8][22] Ahsan has also spoken about how she was offered a COVID-19 vaccine for her father a week after he died.[23]

Ahsan is a member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which advocates for a public inquiry into the UK's pandemic response. She told The Guardian that "You do not need to be a professor of epidemiology to chart ... the week before Christmas when everyone was going out about Christmas shopping to the spike that happened afterwards... That was avoidable and that was the wave that got my dad."[24]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Dr Dr Saleyha Ahsan: Graduate, Army Officer, Medic, Journalist, Scottish BAFTA Winner". University of Dundee. 11 May 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  2. 1 2 Lloyd, Nina; Bevan, Tom (6 January 2021). "Migrant dad who raised six NHS workers dies of Covid despite shielding". mirror. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  3. ↑ "Dr Saleyha Ahsan - Knight Ayton". www.knightayton.co.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Dr Saleyha Ahsan". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  5. ↑ "Humanitarian Doctor Saleyha Ahsan: the UN is Failing Syrian People". ResponseSource Press Release Wire. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  6. ↑ "Why doctors in Syria have become high-value targets". Channel 4 News. 28 September 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Healthcare workers in Syria need international protection | Saleyha Ahsan". The Guardian. 21 September 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  8. 1 2 Danby, Poppy (1 March 2021). "Horrifying reality of hospital workers in the pandemic exposed in TV show". mirror. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  9. ↑ "'What we're seeing with Covid-19 patients is there's a problem with oxygenation' – A&E doctor Saleyha Ahsan". Channel 4 News. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  10. 1 2 "Dr. Saleyha Ahsan | Internews". internews.org. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  11. ↑ "Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls 2018 line-up revealed". Radio Times. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  12. ↑ Marshall, Lucy; Danby, Poppy (1 March 2021). "Reality of being a hospital worker during the pandemic exposed in TV show". HullLive. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  13. ↑ "I always suspected BAME medics were treated differently. Now I know it's true | Saleyha Ahsan". The Guardian. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  14. ↑ "Two Afghan women pave the way in 250km endurance race". ITV News. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  15. ↑ Ahsan, Saleyha (16 January 2022). "While Boris Johnson partied in the sun, I sweated in PPE, saving lives". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  16. ↑ "2019 European elections: List of candidates for London". www.bbc.co.uk. 28 April 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  17. ↑ "Saleyha Ahsan". The UK EU Party. Archived from the original on 22 May 2019.
  18. ↑ "Candidate for MK South announced by Lib Dems". Milton Keynes Liberal Democrats. 10 November 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  19. ↑ "Mayor of Newham: The 7 candidates in London Borough of Newham". Who Can I Vote For? by Democracy Club. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  20. ↑ "Dr Saleyha Ahsan explains why she filmed her journey through Covid". LBC. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  21. ↑ "Condition Critical: One Doctor's Story – Ysbyty Gwynedd to feature on Ch 4 Dispatches". The Bangor Aye. 28 February 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  22. ↑ "Doctor breaks down recalling her father's last moments suffering with Covid". ITV News. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  23. ↑ Lloyd, Nina (6 January 2021). "Daughter offered Covid vaccine for her dad a week after he died from the virus". mirror. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  24. ↑ "'It was avoidable': families bereaved in second wave call for Covid inquiry". The Guardian. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
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