In April 2020 the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh called on the Home Office to grant leave to remain to the families of those overseas clinicians who passed away from COVID-19 having served on our NHS frontlines. We warmly welcomed the Home Office’s decision in that month to grant indefinite leave to remain to the families of those doctors who lost their lives in fighting the virus.
We were therefore alarmed at a report in the Guardian (15 October 2020) of the case of Dr Basem Enany, a hardworking consultant cardiologist from Egypt. Dr Enany has been serving in the NHS treating patients with COVID-19 for months. In September he contracted the virus himself and developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare complication from some viruses which causes nerve damage with no known cure. He has been on a ventilator for two weeks.
It is reported that Dr Enany’s visa is due to expire in December and his wife and children are exceedingly concerned that they may be deported at that point as Dr Enany cannot complete an extension application for his existing visa in his current state. Whilst Dr Enany has not passed away from the virus, he has suffered life-changing complications from the virus whilst helping to save British lives in our NHS. It is most certainly within the spirit of the Home Office’s announcement that Dr Enany and his family should be granted the relief of at least a visa extension if not indefinite leave to remain.
We note that the Home Office has stated they will be contacting Dr Enany’s wife urgently and we further note that Dr Elnany’s local MP has been contacting the Home Office on the family’s behalf. We strongly encourage the Home Office to fulfil this and make contacting Dr Enany’s family an immediate priority.
Our NHS clinicians are a vital part not only of our Coronavirus response but of our society and our communities. They have looked after Britain and it is Britain’s duty to look after them in return.