Doctor-turned-Miss England returns from India, raring to rejoin NHS on the front line

Miss England Bhasha Mukherjee, who recently returned from India to the UK on a special flight, is raring to rejoin NHS as a junior doctor.

The beauty queen was stuck in locked-down India, where she had been for charity activities.

Dr Mukherjee, 24, who was born in Kolkata, had moved with family to Derby at age nine.

On learning about the crisis in the UK, she had appealed the UK government to help her join her NHS colleagues battling the pandemic.

Subsequently, British Deputy High Commissioner Nick Low arranged her head back to the UK via a special flight to Frankfurt.

“I wanted to come back home… I wanted to come and go straight to work,” she told CNN.

“It was incredible the way the whole world was celebrating all key workers, and I wanted to be one of those, and I knew I could help.

“There's no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need.”

Dr Mukherjee had joined work at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston within a day after winning the Miss England title in August last year.

She had been to India on a “four-week humanitarian tour… on behalf of Coventry Mercia Lions Club”, and was left sitting “on the floor crying” after her initially planned return flight was grounded.

On returning to England last Wednesday, she contacted her hospital, and was set to resume duty as per medical guidelines to be followed after international travel.

"I knew the best place for me would be back at the hospital," Dr Mukherjee said.

Low, who assisted her return, wrote on Twitter: "Bhasha, the Almighty sprinkled stardust on you the day you were born. Can't wait to see your vlog-there's a career on screen waiting for you.

"But Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, needs you and I know that's where to want to be. Glad to have helped you on your way!"

Dr Mukherjee said she wanted to "go straight to work" on arriving in the UK.

"I felt a sense of this is what I'd got this [medical] degree for and what better time to be part of this particular sector than now," she said.