Doctor's threat to quit NHS amid mother's visa row

Zohora Harry flew from Trinidad to the UK to help raise her granddaughter after her son-in-law's death

A specialist children's doctor has threatened to leave the NHS after her mother became embroiled in a three-year visa battle with the Home Office.

Dr Liza Harry's husband died after catching Covid while working for the NHS in April 2020.

Her mother, Zohora Harry, flew from Trindad to help raise her 11-year-old granddaughter. However, her application to extend the visa was refused on the grounds that there were no exceptional circumstances.

"All applications are carefully considered on their individual merits and in line with the immigration rules," a Home Office spokesperson said.

Paediatric consultant Dr Shree Vishna Rasiah died after contracting Covid-19

Dr Harry's husband Dr Shree Vishna Rasiah, 48, a leading neonatologist at Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital, was one of the first doctors to die after catching Covid on duty during the pandemic.

Two months later, her mother Zohora, a 76-year-old widow, arrived to help look after her granddaughter and offer support.

Dr Harry works at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital and said she needed the childcare when she was away from home, especially on night shifts.

She said she had no other family in the UK and did not want to leave her daughter with a stranger.

Zohora said: "When I heard the possibility that I may go back home, not being able to support her [her granddaughter] and by extension her mum, it made me very sad, very emotional. It broke my heart."

When she applied for a visa extension in October, the family thought that it would be a formality, but the Home Office rejected it.

A first tier tribunal, which heard the appeal, also ruled against the family, saying Zohora had failed to show there were exceptional or compelling circumstances that her absence would have a significant impact on her granddaughter.

It stated she could maintain her relationship and bond with her granddaughter via modern communications and regular visits between the UK and Trinidad and Tobago.

But Dr Harry said: "I don't think that would work. I think we would then have to think seriously if all three of us leave."

The family launched a second appeal last week, claiming that the judgement was "perverse".

"The first tier tribunal does not go on to make any finding as to how the grandchild's care can be safely managed with regard to school needs and out of hours, given the extensive evidence from the appellant, the child's mother and the child that it was neither viable or child centric," the appeal document reads.

An online petition has collected more than 3,500 signatures in support since its launch on 8 September.