Together, we made history! Our first-ever fundraising event in London, supported by the generosity of our members and participants, raised over £100,000. This incredible milestone is a step forward in supporting building a dedicated Paediatric Cardiac Hospital by J&K Hope and Health Foundation of Kashmir and for palliative care in Kashmir. Thank you for being part of this journey to make a lasting impact!"

  British Kashmiri Medical Association held it 3rd Annual conference at Mercure Parkway hotel in Leeds on the 26th of April 2025. The theme of the conference was ‘Medical Ethics and Patient Safety’ - 70 delegates attended the conference in person and delegates from Jammu & Kashmir joined us online. Dr Shaheen Shora, General secretary and Dr Eram Durrani, Social Secretary hosted the conference. Miss Sakina Itoo, Honourable Cabinet Minister for Education, Health & Medical Education and Social welfare in Jammu & Kashmir, India was planned to inaugurate the conference but due to network issues, Mr Nasir Aslam Wani (Sogami), Advisor to Honorable Chief Minister, Jammu & Kashmir, stepped in and inaugurated our conference. Mr Nasir welcomed the collaborative working initiative between health care professionals in UK and Jammu and Kashmir to improve standards of safety and quality of health care in Jammu and Kashmir. We are grateful to Mr Nasir Wani. Our guest speaker Prof Nusrat Husain spoke about ‘Intergenerational trauma and building resilience’ and Mr Tawqeer Rashid, spoke about the ‘Impact of MDT & Patient Education in cutting Diabetic Foot Amputations’. We had a very constructive panel discussion on ‘Safety in Healthcare Saves Lives’ which was chaired and moderated by Mr Gulzar Mufti and co- moderated by Mr Arshad Bhat. Our panelist’s from Kashmir – Prof Mohammad Ashraf Ganie, Prof (Dr) Rukhsana Najeeb and Dr Jehangir Bakshi shared their valuable insights working in Kashmir and the panelist’s from UK – Dr Afifa Qazi, Miss Sameena Muzaffar and Dr Yasir Rashid shared the protocols followed in UK along with their experiences. Dr A R Mahroo, retired Consultant Anaesthetist was given a standing ovation for receiving a Lifetime achievement award for his exemplary work as part of the British Kashmiri Medical Fraternity towards delivering excellent patient care, teaching and improving standards of care here in UK and back home in Kashmir. BKMA recognised the outstanding contributions of its members at regional and national levels in UK and Dr Nazir Bhat, ENT consultant, Dr Sarfaraz Shora, Consultant Psychiatrist & Deputy Medical Director and Dr Shah Faisal Tarfarosh, Consultant Psychiatrist were felicitated and given awards of recognition for their excellent work in various fields of education, training and patient care. BKMA is immensely proud of them. Awards were given for poster presentations at the conference. Dr Kamran Hassan Dar won the first prize for "Driving Advice Audit—A Quality Improvement Initiative to Enhance Patient Safety and Adherence to DVLA and GMC Guidelines" and Dr Hameem Fayaz won the second prize for ‘Patient Safety Awareness Audit amongst healthcare professionals in Jammu and Kashmir’. 2nd edition of BKMA newsletter was released by Dr Nazir Shameem, GP and senior BKMA member. BKMA thanked Dr Roshan Ara Khuroo as lead editor of the newsletter and everyone who contributed to making this edition a diverse and interesting one. Our President Dr Tafazul Hussain thanked the outgoing executive members Dr Mehdi Hassan, Dr Yasir Rashid, Dr Roshan Ara Khuroo, Dr Qazi Manaan, Dr Salim Punjabi, Dr Aadil Zargar and Rukhi Mackay. Dr Mudasir Firdosi, outgoing Vice President received a special memento for his valuable contributions over the last 3 years in office and he thanked everyone for the support he received over the last 5 and a half years since his time first in the interim office as interim Vice President and the last 3 years in his role as Vice President of BKMA. Dr Tafazul extended a warm welcome to new executive members Dr Burhan ul Islam Malik as Treasurer and Mr Arshad Bhat in his new role as Vice President, Dr Eram Durrani as social secretary and Dr Shaheen Shora as General Secretary. We would like to thank Dr Mehdi Hassan for leading the IT support for the conference and our sponsors ‘Lifeline Protect’. Finally, a special thanks and gratitude to Dr Eram Durrani, our social secretary for organising a successful conference & all BKMA members and delegates for their active engagement and support.