An NHS doctor has been honoured at this year’s Global Women in Healthcare Awards for her work training undergraduates and promoting leadership.

Dr Mumtaz Patel (pictured above), Postgraduate Associate Dean in NHS England North West’s Workforce Training and Education Directorate, won the Outstanding Leader award at the awards.

Mumtaz was presented the award for her work in undergraduate and postgraduate medical training, supporting doctors to fulfil their full potential, and promoting leadership and the delivery of patient-centred care.

Mumtaz, said: “I am absolutely delighted to have won this award. To have been shortlisted was a huge achievement itself and then to go on to win was a real surprise. I was very honoured and humbled to win the award.

The award highlights the work that we do around workforce training and education and the Long Term Workforce Plan as well as my wider work to support women in healthcare and reduce the gender leadership gap globally. I am absolutely delighted by this.”

Aside from her role at NHS England North West, Mumtaz is a Consultant Nephrologist at Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Director of Conduct and Progress at University of Liverpool’s School of Medicine, and Vice President of Education and Training at the Royal College of Physicians.

After completing her medicine degree at the University of Manchester in 1996, Mumtaz went on to pursue a career in renal medicine. She completed her foundation training at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, her renal specialist training in Yorkshire and gained her PhD from the University of Manchester in the genetics of lupus nephritis in 2006.

Regional Director of Workforce, Training and Education at NHS England North West, said Chris Cutts: “A huge congratulations to Mumtaz for this win and for going above and beyond in her role. The NHS is nothing without the people who work in and alongside it, and this award recognises Mumtaz’s outstanding contribution in training and supporting doctors to deliver erstwhile patient-centred care.

This is an immense achievement as we continue on with delivering the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the first-of-its-kind plan for the NHS, to train, retain and reform the workforce and put the NHS on a sustainable footing into the future.”

The Global Women in Healthcare Awards was held for the first time this year and launched by EMMS International and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in celebration of the achievements of women in healthcare.

CEO and Director of International Programmes at EMMS International, Dr Cathy Ratcliff said: “For over 150 years, EMMS International has challenged the belief that girls won’t succeed at college or university, or as professionals, and we support vulnerable women in India, Malawi and Nepal to follow their dreams to become doctors, nurses, midwives or lab technicians. 

The Global Women in Healthcare Awards shine a light on inspirational role models for future generations of women in healthcare across the world.”