Zahid Chauhan
Zahid Chauhan OBE is a general practitioner and a British Labour Party politician, councillor for Alexandra ward on Oldham Council.[1] He has executive responsibility for health and social care on the council and runs the charity Homeless Friendly.
He has been actively campaigning during the COVID-19 pandemic in England to ensure that homeless people are vaccinated. He organised clinics to vaccinate homeless people and rough sleepers as a high priority because they are at high risk from the virus.[2] He says that homeless people with low immune systems are highly susceptible to infection[3] and that putting them in the first wave was "the human thing to do".[4] He was named by The Big Issue as one of their Changemakers for 2021 for vaccinating homeless people two months before their vulnerability was recognised in government advice.[5]
He welcomed the establishment of the Oldham Community Diagnostic Centre, a joint enterprise between the council and the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group.[6]
He was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 4 January 2022 and was asked what the cancellation of non-urgent surgery would mean, he said: 'It means for my patients that they will be waiting longer, they will be unfortunately suffering more... If you are waiting for a hip replacement and you can't walk, that means you are in pain.' He said the cancellations were exacerbated by problems with the availability of lateral flow tests and PCR tests.[7]
He says "One of Covid’s few positives is that the public has finally seen the value of their health service."[8]
References[]
- ^ "Zahid Chauhan OBE". Oldham Council. 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Oldham: Homeless prioritised for Covid-19 vaccine in UK first". Oldham Times. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Zahid Chauhan: Why we prioritised the homeless for Covid vaccination". Local Government Chronicle. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Covid-19: Oldham prioritises homeless in vaccine roll-out". BBC. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "Changemakers 2022: Housing and homelessness". Big Issue. 10 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "'Landmark' NHS testing facility coming to Oldham". Place Northwest. 16 December 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "UK Covid infections rise to record 3.7m in last week of 2021". Financial Times. 5 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- ^ "What does a GP do when they lose their patience?". Pulse. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- Councillors in Oldham
- Labour Party (UK) councillors
- 21st-century British politicians
- British politicians of South Asian descent
- Living people
- British general practitioners
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire