Intended for healthcare professionals

Obituaries

Ihsanul Haq Mian

BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3399 (Published 04 September 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;370:m3399
  1. Safoora Mian-Cudmore,
  2. Saira Risdale

The appointment of Ihsanul Haq Mian (“Ihsan”) as consultant psychiatrist in 1976 was the culmination of a journey that took Ihsan across two continents, three countries, and three universities.

What followed was a distinguished career of selfless dedication and tireless commitment to improving the lives of people with mental illness and their carers.

Born in India before partition, Ihsan moved with his family at the age of 11 to the newly founded Pakistan. Despite a five mile journey to school, usually on foot, occasionally by bicycle or horse, he exhibited from an early age a drive to work hard, succeed, and to make something of himself.

Having completed his medical degree in Bahawalpur, he first worked in rural Pakistan as an assistant medical officer. In 1961, he travelled to the UK for the first time and was disappointed to learn that his medical degree was not recognised by the General Medical Council. With characteristic tenacity, he worked as an operating theatre technician in Middlesbrough before returning to Pakistan in 1963 to undertake further exams at Nishtar Medical College and earn GMC registration.

In 1969, accompanied by his wife Masuda, an anaesthetist, he returned to the UK, where he worked in Middlesbrough, before entering training as a psychiatrist.

Ihsan recognised early the stigma associated with mental illness and the burden placed on families and carers. He was astute enough to acknowledge the NHS could meet only some of the needs of these patients and in 1979, he co-founded the charity Support the Elderly Mentally Infirm, the first of its kind in Bristol. Ihsan pioneered the use of a volunteer led sitting service, providing much needed respite to the carers of elderly mentally ill patients.

He established two day centres for elderly mentally ill patients in Bristol, one of which remains operational at Southmead Hospital. His supervisor meetings were well known among his registrars for being a mix of both psychiatry and education, but also Persian poetry and literature.

Ihsan was described by colleagues as an “unstoppable force” and having a “persuasive, implacable, respectful determination to do the best for those he served.”

He served on the Mental Health Act Commission and the Health Advisory Service, the former for nearly a decade.

Ihsan wrote personally to local GPs and consultant colleagues on his retirement, also managing to include updated guidelines on lithium monitoring. It is a testament to the esteem in which he was held that he received over 40 replies.

After retiring in 1998, Ihsan’s commitment to his work and to improving the lives of patients was not diminished. He was appointed to the Mental Health Review Tribunal, a role in which he served until he was obliged to retire when he was 70.

Ihsan’s attention turned to the Glenside Hospital psychiatric museum. This had been founded by his mentor and colleague, Donal Early, and was sited on the former Glenside asylum, where he worked as a consultant.

His innovation continued; he raised the profile of the museum by inviting local and international healthcare students for educational visits that he led himself. He organised an official reopening of the refurbished museum with the Lord Mayor of Bristol and arranged exhibitions and a “Doors Open” day scheme.

He secured a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £30 000, which was used to record oral histories of people with recollections of the hospital and to further develop the museum.

As ever, his motivation was to use his role as chairman of the museum to destigmatise mental illness

Well known among family, friends, colleagues, and patients for his humour and his charm, his kindness and generosity, his courtesy, and his ability to recall an idiom and recite poetry in several languages, he was both a true gentleman and a gentle man.

The world is a poorer place without him.

Devoted to his family, he leaves his wife, Masuda; three daughters; and six grandchildren.

Consultant psychiatrist (b 1936; q 1960), died from valvular heart disease on 30 January 2020

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