Hungarian Doctor on the Queen's New Year Honors List

Dr. Tamás Szakmány, a Hungarian doctor working in Wales, was made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for services to the the British public healthcare system NHS during the COCID-19 pandemic.

According to the local paper South Wales Argus, the doctor said he was “completely astonished and humbled” to receive the recognition.

This year, Dr Szakmány has been at the forefront of efforts to treat seriously ill patients in Gwent, to co-ordinate the critical care response to the pandemic in Wales and to research the viability of potential treatments for the virus.

“I thought I was doing my job like everybody else,” he told the the paper. “I didn’t think for one minute it was result in this. I’m really surprised.”

The 44-year-old anesthesiologist went to Britain in 2004 to gain experience but then, he decided to stay. He was working in Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital during the first wave of the pandemic, and is now based at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s (ABUHB) new critical care center at the Grange hospital in Cwmbran.