The Medic and Charity
Thursday, 01 February 2024
Room 402, Suttie Centre
THE MEDIC AND CHARITY
1 February 2024
Professor Syed Iftikhar MB BS, DM, FRCS, Consultant Surgeon and Hon. Associate Professor, Royal Derby Hospital.
Professor Iftikhar qualified from Dow Medical College, Karachi in 1979 and trained as a surgeon in the Mid-Trent Deanery. He was awarded Doctor of Medicine (DM) from University of Nottingham in 1991, the first Pakistani General Surgeon to achieve it. He was appointed as Consultant General, Upper GI and Laparoscopic Surgeon in 1994 at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. He was Director of Education at Derbyshire Royal infirmary (1996-1998) and Program Director for the Mid-Trent Higher Surgical Training Programme (2001-06). He was President of the Derby South Rotary Club (2006-2007 and president of Derby Medical Society (2013-14).
In 2005, Ifti led a team of doctors from the East Midlands to help the earthquake victims in South Asia. He organised a charity called Midland Doctors Association in 2006 and since then they have established Midland Doctors from the ground up.
He has carried out research in oesophageal and reflux diseases and made significant global impact with his charity work by building a hospital in Muzaffarabad, undertaking medical work in Sindh, teaching students in Punjab, fundraising for local handicapped children, travelling to various parts of Pakistan in times of crisis for people in need, carrying out operations in Kashmir, helping build orphanages in Moldova, trying to set up a HIV clinic in Malawi and fundraising to provide boats for Sri Lankan tsunami victims. He was the second ever Rotarian in his district to be awarded the highest rotary honour "service above self". Ifti enjoys playing badminton, cricket, walking and spending time with his family.
He will talk about his involvement in charity work in natural disasters while continuing with his day job in the NHS as an upper GI oncology surgeon excelling in laparoscopic surgery.