The stuff of legend

CONGRATULATIONS to island GP Dr Kate Pickering who has taken top place in the Pulse magazine’s list of the most influential GPs in their ‘local heroes’ category.

She has been honoured by the publication’s as a GP Community Champion and was described as ‘truly a legend’.

The citation points out that when she took over the island practice five years ago its three-handed practices were largely dependent on the services of locum doctors.

This situation was exacerbated by the fact that adverts for newcomers regularly failed to attract a single applicant.

When Dr Pickering, who previously served as a locum on the island, took over the principal post she achieved great things for the medical services on both Islay and neighbouring Jura.

These achievements saw the recruitment of a new team for the islands, reduced the need for a large number of patients to travel to the mainland for medical treatment, and saw a reduction in the number of air ambulance call-outs.

There has also been a favourable and encouraging response to staff recruitment. The island GP, who is also an honorary senior lecturer in Remote and Rural Medicine in Glasgow University, was also responsible for federating the island’s three medical practices into one provider, the Umbrella Model, resulting in patients’ records being available across the involved practices.

Well done Dr Kate – a local hero indeed.