DR LEORA HARVERD, WHO HELPED LEAD BARNET’S VACCINATION DRIVE

● A TEMPLE Fortune GP who helped lead Barnet’s vaccination push said she had been “completely blown away” by the award, which coincided with her birthday.

“It was probably the best birthday surprise ever,” Dr Leora Harverd, 53, told the

JC on Monday shortly after receiving her trophy.

“I had no idea that I was nominated because I have been so crazily busy with the vaccination programme. It was a real surprise, completely out of the blue,” she said. Dr Harverd transformed a carpark to the rear of her practice into a vaccination hub as part of a pilot scheme, which has so far seen around 18,000 local residents receive jabs. She and other GPs at the practice felt a “sense of duty” to join the scheme. “It was a no brainer. I just wanted to roll it out as quickly as we could.”

As a GP “working in the midst of the Jewish community in NW11”, she had been concerned about its disproportionate number of fatalities during the first wave, a trend she linked to simchas and the “Jewish bubble” effect. “Everybody knows somebody who died last March and April from Covid so we just felt a sense of duty to make it happen,” she said. “The whole world has been hit by Covid but the Jewish community is such a tight network, a Jewish bubble.

“I think that’s why there was such a high percentage of deaths, because of our lifestyle, Jewish festivals, coming together, Purim, reading the Megillah, breathing in the same air, and all the barmitzvahs and weddings.”

The period leading up to the golive date flashed by. “It happened so quickly. We didn’t know how quickly we were going to have to get there, when vaccines were coming.

“It was a leap of faith and I think we’ve done really well with it. The patients have been incredible and they’re so grateful. It’s been quite an emotional journey for some of them.”

The vaccination centre has involved a heavy amount of planning but despite the many sleepless nights involved, she has not looked back.

“I don’t regret all the hard work for one second. I’ve literally been living and breathing it and haven’t been sleeping because there’s been so much planning to do when you’re dealing with the vast numbers, the IT and the whole machinery of people who have been involved in the running of it to make sure that it runs smoothly each time.”

She said a particular highlight has been the dozens of volunteers who brave the cold winter weather to donate food or help with security and marshalling. “They’ve been seeing what had been going on and they wanted to be part of the process and just give and give.”

She also said her colleagues — doctors Karen Grossmark, Sherry Taylor, Luisa Pettigrew — are also equally deserving of recognition.

“We’ve put our heart and soul into this, every morsel of energy in our DNA into this, so I feel they should also be able to hold this lucky trophy.”