One of Bolton’s leading doctors has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for his work during the pandemic.

Since the start of the pandemic, Rizwan Ahmed, 44, has led the respiratory medicine team in at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust ensuring they deliver the best possible care in the most trying circumstances.

During that time, he has worked hard to provide moral and psychological support to staff and to engage with hard-to-reach communities.

Dr Ahmed said: “I am extremely honoured and humbled to receive this award.

“This achievement would not have been possible without the help and dedication of the amazing team I work with at Royal Bolton Hospital, the Centre of Excellence in Safety for Older People and support from my family.”

Dr Ahmed has also worked with the centre and with and local GPs during that times, running community projects to improve wellbeing and frailty amongst elderly in the community by encouraging healthy and safe living during Covid-19.

He said: “From the start of the pandemic I was not only involved in managing acutely unwell Covid patients at the front line but also in planning and executing how the respiratory department and the Trust dealt with the pandemic.

“My priority was to keep my patients safe, staff safe and ensure morale was kept high.

“It was also important to communicate public health messages to our communities, especially hard to reach groups, while continuing with education and training for medical and allied healthcare colleagues.”

His work has also included reducing TB across the borough and Dr Ahmed has chaired TB symposiums at national conferences, actively participating in several regional and national TB advisory groups.

This year's MBE is just the latest honour he has received, with Dr Ahmed’s work already having been recognized at national level by the National Bronze Clinical Excellence award.

He is now working to pass his skills to the next generation by teaching undergraduate and postgraduate doctors and allied healthcare professionals and has been made an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Medical Education at Manchester University.