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2025 marks the 15th anniversary of the creation of Medical Defence Shield. Fifteen years of standing resolute beside healthcare professionals when they have faced challenge, scrutiny, and injustice.
To commemorate this journey and celebrate it with the healthcare community, we launched a new award to recognise exceptional courage, integrity, and advocacy in the defence of healthcare workers across the United Kingdom.
We chose to name this Award after the late Dr Jenny Vaughan, to honour the memory of a determined champion of fairness and protection in healthcare.
The inaugural MDS – Jenny Vaughan Memorial award was presented to Dr Meenal Viz during the BAPIO Annual Conference in London. Dr Viz received the Award from Dr Vaughan’s husband, in recognition of the extraordinary and necessary stand she took during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a time when uncertainty, fear, and unprecedented pressure swept across the NHS, Meenal spoke up. Not just for herself, but for every healthcare worker facing risk without adequate protection. While pregnant and working on the front line, Meenal challenged the government’s guidance and demanded the safeguards that NHS staff urgently needed and deserved.
Her courage led to a significant change in national policy, a change that protected countless clinicians and helped reshape how the risks posed to pregnant healthcare workers were recognised and addressed.
This was not an easy path. Speaking out required enormous moral strength, personal sacrifice, and a commitment to justice that mirrors the values Jenny Vaughan championed throughout her life.
When Meenal stood in front of Downing Street, she stood there for the safety, dignity, and rights of all healthcare professionals across the country.
Medical Defence Shield is also proud to have supported Meenal through the legal challenges of this journey.
Dr Viz shared these words with us upon receiving her award:
“Receiving the Jenny Vaughan Memorial Award was an honour that I carry with deep gratitude.
“My journey is rooted in the sacrifices of the women who came before me – a grandmother who was a refugee, a mother who became the first woman in our family to receive a full education.
“They could never have imagined a moment like this, and yet I stand on their shoulders, committed to continuing the work of justice, fairness and advocacy for healthcare professionals. This award is not an ending; it is a beginning.”
With this award, we are proud to celebrate her courage, her fierce advocacy, her unwavering dedication to protecting those who care for others and for embodying the spirit of justice and compassion that this award represents.
Whether you work within the NHS or in private practice, MDS can provide you with robust clinical defence and medico-legal advice from an expert in-house team.
Employment issues are also as common in healthcare as in any other job, and many find it difficult and stressful to navigate them. MDS is the only Medical Defence Organisation that can support you through employment issues as well as offering you regulatory and medico-legal protection.
Choose Medical Defence Shield as your expert partner, providing the peace of mind and professional confidence you need to focus on what you do best: caring for your patients.
Call us on 0300 30 32 442 or email us on [email protected] to find out more, or sign up online.
