A DOCTOR who is now a Tory MSP has told Holyrood he did not hug his newborn daughter for eight weeks because he feared giving her coronavirus.
Sandesh Gulhane also said his seven-year-old son asked why he had stopped loving him after he "kept his distance" to protect him.
The 39-year-old, who represents the Glasgow region, opened up about the impact of the pandemic in his maiden speech in the Scottish Parliament.
He said he stood for election "to voice the pain of my patients, to voice the burn out of my colleagues, to voice everyone’s desperate wish for us to work together".
Mr Gulhane said he was born to immigrant parents from India who "came here with nothing".
He started as a doctor in 2006 and later settled in Glasgow.
He added: "I am a frontline doctor, having worked in A&E, out-of-hours and seeing patients in general practice.
"As the pandemic struck, I did what thousands of other Scottish healthcare workers did. I kept seeing my patients."
He said he had seen the "bravery and humanity" of his colleagues "shine very brightly indeed" during the pandemic.
He added: “But I had low points too.
"When my lockdown baby was born, I stayed away because of the fear of passing Covid to her. I did not hug her for eight weeks. My newborn baby.
“But I kept seeing my patients. I kept my distance from my seven-year-old son because of the fear of passing Covid to him.
"And one day he asked my wife why I didn’t love him any more. Had he done something wrong?
"But like my nursing colleagues I kept seeing my patients.”
Mr Gulhane said he had come to Parliament to "represent the Scottish NHS, my patients, my colleagues, to make them feel like they truly have a voice".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel