Srinagar, Nov 09: Dr Afifa Qazi, an alumnus of Govt Medical College Srinagar, has been honoured with the “Psychiatrist of the Year 2022” award by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, UK. It is a highly competitive prize awarded to individuals for their outstanding contributions in mental health.
Dr Qazi graduated from the Govt medical College, Srinagar in 1995 and moved to the UK where she pursued a career in Psychiatry. She is currently working as the Chief Medical Officer for a large mental health organisation in Kent and Medway, UK. She has made significant, and high impact contributions to the mental health services in the UK. Over the years, Dr Qazi has received numerous awards in recognition of her work, including the Academic Health Science Network Health Innovation Award for her work in dementia (2014), and HSJ award (2016), the most esteemed accolade of healthcare service excellence in the UK.
Dr Qazi developed an innovative and a highly successful model of community care for dementia which reduces the hospital admissions and the length of stay for people suffering with that disorder. Her work has received recognition by the Dept of Health in the UK, and internationally by healthcare organisations in the other countries, e.g. Japan, which sent a team to the UK to study her methods and replicate it in their services.
She is a sought-after speaker at national and international conferences in Psychiatry, and has numerous peer reviewed publications in prestigious academic journals to her credit.
Dr Qazi is working on setting up a partnership with her fellow professionals in Kashmir to share good practice, and offer her support to continuing professional development and innovation in healthcare service delivery.
