Saif wins national pandemic essay prize

Perinatal consultant impresses judge with 'humility and humanity'

Our perinatal consultant psychiatrist Dr Saif Bangash appeared on a star-studded webinar panel with TV personality and actor Stephen Fry and former Labour party spokesperson and mental health champion Alistair Campbell to receive a top national prize in a contest organised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Saif was one of four winners with his 1,500-word essay on ‘How the Covid-19 pandemic has taught me to be a better psychiatrist’.

Stephen Fry and Alistair Campbell, both Honorary Fellows of the Royal College, have both spoken and written extensively about their own mental health. They judged the entries alongside Dr Navina Evans, consultant psychiatrist and Chief Executive of Health Education England, who awarded Dr Bangash’s prize.

Dr Evans said: “I was struck by Saif’s humility and humanity, and the personal account of vulnerability by someone who had just been appointed a consultant.”

She said the essay recalled her own experiences as a new young consultant and added: “It is a really wonderful connection with how the pandemic shaped the consultant’s life – filled with humility and hope.”

Saif, who is donating his £250 prize to the service, joined the Trust in 2012 and became a consultant in October 2020.

He said: “It’s been a very hard year for so many people – we share that with our patients. But equally there have been a lot of positives along with the negatives. The essay came at a good time when I could take stock.

“Maybe putting things down helped me put them in perspective and it was certainly therapeutic.”