Zim doctor honoured in the UK

A UNITED Kingdom-based Zimbabwean medical doctor Ronald Manuhwa has been honoured with an Allison Gourdie medal after completing emergency medicine post graduate diploma with Royal College of Emergency Medicine in the European country.

The award is given annually to candidates with the highest combined scores across their first attempts at the MRCEM single best answer paper assessing and the MRCEM objective structured clinical examinations.

“It was shocking to be accorded the award, I did not expect it. I have read about Dr Alison Gourdie and her work so to be awarded a medal in her name is just humbling,” Manuhwa said.

Manuhwa, who is part of an organisation in Zimbabwe which looks at the development of emergency medicine recognition, said he was keen to contribute to the development of emergency and retrieval medicine services back home.

“I am keen on contributing to the on-going development of emergency and retrieval medicine services and the specialty at large. I am part of Zimbabwe Emergency Medicine Society, an organisation dedicated to the development of emergency medicine recognition, development and future training. I believe our Zimbabwean health sector has got great minded clinicians and scholars who are eager to work towards this vision,” he said.

Gourdie celebrated the end of her training in Accident and Emergency Medicine in 1992 by travelling to Nepal for a trekking holiday.

The plane Gourdie was flying in crashed on a hillside near Kathmandu Airport, tragically killing her and other 167 passengers.

After her death, Gourdie’s family set up a fund in conjunction with the faculty of A&E Medicine (now the Royal College of Emergency Medicine) to support and reward doctors in training in emergency medicine.

The college’s honours committee agreed that the Alison Gourdie medal should be awarded annually in her memory to honour promising young doctors in her specialty, emergency medicine.