A new medal will honour the memory of Dr Amjad Hamid, who was tragically killed in March 2019’s Christchurch mosque attack.
The medal has been developed by The Royal New Zealand College of GPs because Dr Amjad Hamid, a heart doctor and a rural hospital consultant, was also a fellow of the College’s Division of Rural Hospital Medicine.
The Amjad Hamid medal will be awarded for the first time this year to the top student of the University of Otago’s GENA 728 paper, which is Cardiorespiratory Medicine in Rural Hospitals.
Lynne Hayman, CEO of the College says, “It is a fitting tribute to Dr Hamid to honour him in this way and to associate him with the highest achievers in cardiorespiratory medicine.”
Jennifer Keys is the Chair of the Division of Rural Hospital Medicine and says, “Dr Hamid was known as a highly-skilled, caring and gentle doctor and his death was a shocking loss to the rural health profession.
“Creating this medal in his name will help keep his memory alive and memorialise his work in the annals of New Zealand medical history.”
While Dr Hamid lived in Christchurch with his wife and family, he travelled to Hawera to work for Taranaki DHB as a rural hospital consultant at Hawera Hospital.
Dr Hamid had worked as a registered doctor in New Zealand since 1998 and has been a fellow of the college’s rural hospital division since 2013.