CARES WINS
The Scottish Health Awards recognise the extraordinary efforts of the professionals on the frontline of the nation’s health and care services, who labour tirelessly on our behalf
Andrea Wood was the worthy winner of the Therapist Award, having been nominated by the mother of a young child who, it was feared, would spend the rest of her life bedridden after contracting a rare virus.
June Rorison was first winner of the night and took home the Support Worker trophy.
She said: “As a support worker, it’s important to listen to people and treat everyone as a person rather than an illness.”
The Innovation category was one of the most hotly contested and a difficult one for the judges to decide but in the end Choose Life North East Scotland were the deserving winners.
The collaboration between Aberdeenshire Council, Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian, Police Scotland, Cruse Bereavement Care and the Samaritans saw a 29 per cent reduction in suicides in a single year, with another 40 per cent reduction in the first three months of 2017.
The collaboration also took home the award for Care for Mental Health.
For the first time this year, there was a separate category for optometrists and the inaugural award went to Craig Campbell who opened the first practice on Skye.
Elaine Kelso, who won the Midwife Award, is the only midwife on Arran and provides a dedicated service which includes being on call 24/7 for prolonged periods.
The Care for Long Term Illness Award went to REALISE Support and Learning Services with the Angus Health and Social Care Partnership. They were nominated by the widow of a patient they cared for with “dedication, commitment, humour, patience and with dignity and respect”.
A young man with a big future is trainee dentist Niall McGoldrick who is this year’s Young Achiever. Niall jointly set up a project with another trainee to highlight the increasing incidence of mouth cancer.
Decades of work done by support worker Violet Grant at the Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow earned her this year’s Unsung Hero Award.
The work done by the Specialist Paramedic Team SAS Melrose earned them the coveted Top Team Award as well as the award for the Integrated Care For Older People Award. John Pritchard, the paramedic team leader for Helimed 76 – Scotland’s charity air ambulance, was judged Leader of the Year. The team working at the NHS Centre for Integrated Care in Glasgow scooped up the Healthier Lifestyle Award.
Fife dentist Barry Corkey picked up the top Dentist gong at the awards. Barry is a paedodontic specialist who developed the only direct access unit in Scotland undertaking tongue tied procedures to assist breastfeeding in infants
Nurse of the Year was judged to be Eileen Mulholland, a health visitor in Lanarkshire who impressed the judges with her commitment to children with autism.
A grateful patient with a complex congenital cardiac complaint nominated Doctor of the Year Glen Hall for his award because of the personal support he gave to her. A special four-page pull-out on the awards will appear in the Daily Record next week.