Auckland’s Starship Hospital’s wellknown paediatric surgeon Vipul Upadhyay has received the “Outstanding Service Award” from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons on May 7.
The award – a certificate, pin and citation – was conferred on Mr Upadhyay at the 88th Annual Scientific Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, where his wife Dr Nilima Upadhyay and daughter Nupur were also present.
“It is indeed a great honour to receive such an award from the most esteemed academic institution – the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons,” Mr Upadhyay told The Indian Weekender.
After completing his training and Fellowship in the UK, Mr Upadhyay (FRCSEd, FRACS) joined Starship Hospital in 1995 and has served as paediatric surgeon ever since. He was awarded a “Long Service” award in recognition of his dedicated and valued service to the hospital and the District Health Board in 1996.
Mr Upadhyay is also a Hon. Senior Lecturer with the Department of Paediatrics and has an abiding interest in teaching and training young doctors. He has been a supervisor of doctors training to be surgeons for several years and also examines young doctors who aspire to be future surgeons. He performs these duties for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which is the academic body that offers Fellowship of the college on successful completion of surgical training.
His subspecialty interest is reconstructive paediatric urology, which involves complex reconstructions on children born with congenital anomalies. He has jointly authored several presentations and publications in academic literature. He has also been invited to several conferences to deliver lectures, he has been involved in editing peer reviewed publications for journals.
During last several years, Mr Upadhyay has lead a team of specialists and nurses to the Solomon Islands and Fiji to offer his expert services to the children of these nations. During these trips, which are totally voluntary, he has operated on many patients and helped improve the lives of many children. He has also helped train a generation of young surgeons of these islands, mainly Fiji, by teaching and supervising them during these visits. These activities were done under the Pacific Island Program run by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Mr Upadhyay is also an avid pohotographer and a prolific traveller. He is a salon grade photographer with the Auckland Photographic society and his photographic work has been accepted at several competitions within New Zealand. He also paints and is greatly interested in music and theatre and other performing arts.