The government of Saudi Arabia has presented a leadership award to a Pakistani doctor for his services to the kingdom during the pandemic coronavirus. The Pakistani doctor led a team of doctors that treated the patients of coronavirus in the kingdom, reported Arab News last week.
Dr. Shahzad Ahmad Mumtaz, the recipient of the award, is the head of the Intensive Care Unit at King Salman Hospital in Riyadh. The Saudi Health Ministry honored him with an award on the country’s National Day on 23rd September.
https://t.co/YfiXA9EwoF Happy to see my brother Dr. Shahzad Ahmed Mumtaz receiving highest recognition for his untiring and exemplary work managing critically ill #COVID19 patients in #KSA #MOH #SaudiNationalDay2020 #ImranKhan @ImranKhanPTI @pid_gov #icu
— Mahboob Alam (@BaylorCardio) September 26, 2020
“In recognition of my services as head of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the King Salman Hospital, I was given leadership award and appreciation certificate by the Saudi health ministry,” said Mumtaz in an interview with Arab News.
He added he received his award in a ceremony organized in the hospital on a national day. Mumtaz hails from Layyah, a small town in Punjab, and has been working in the kingdom for the past 18 years. He even served as a director at the King Saud Medical City.
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“At the outset of the pandemic, the COVID-19 mortality rate was very high at the King Salman Hospital. That is the reason why I was brought here as the ICU head to increase the hospital’s capacity to deal with the challenge posed by the pandemic,” he remarked during his interview with the Arab publication.
The Pakistani doctor said that with better management and greater use of modern techniques and technologies, he managed to reduce the COVID-related deaths by 10 percent in the last five months.
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“The mortality rate related to COVID-19 in international ICUs is around 30 percent since very critical patients are shifted to these units. The ICU at the King Salman Hospital has remained under 10 percent during the last five months,” he underlined.