THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021

Photographs attached: 1 – (front l-r) Dr Scott Jamieson and Dr David Shaw with members of the NHS Tayside Primary Care Command and Coordination Team, 2 – Dr Scott Jamieson receiving his award at the RCGP Inspire Awards

National awards for Tayside’s COVID-19 response

Members of the Tayside Primary Care Team have been recognised at a national awards ceremony for their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NHS Tayside’s Primary Care Command and Coordination Team won the ‘Team Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Health’ category at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Inspire Awards, while Dr Scott Jamieson of Kirriemuir Medical Practice was named ‘RCGP Member of the Year’.

Chair of Tayside NHS Board Lorna Birse-Stewart said, “These awards recognise exceptional performance and achievement by the dedicated staff working in our primary care services.

“On behalf of the Board, I would like to congratulate the team and Dr Jamieson on these awards which demonstrate that there is some really good work happening despite the ongoing pressures.”

NHS Tayside Chief Executive Grant Archibald said, “These awards are fantastic recognition for the rapid and very successful response from our primary care teams to the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are very fortunate here in Tayside to have such close collaboration between our primary, community and acute hospital services who work together with the common purpose of serving our patients and providing the best possible care.

“Congratulations also go to Dr Scott Jamieson for his individual award. He has been a leading figure in the primary care COVID response and this recognition is very well deserved.”

The Command and Coordination Team (CCT) was formed at the beginning of the pandemic to respond to the emerging challenges of COVID-19. Led by GPs from across Tayside, they quickly established COVID Assessment Centres (CACs) across Tayside communities to enable patients to be seen and treated in a COVID-safe environment. This included administrative and transport support and staffing from local practices.

They also set up a weekly online meeting for 500 GPs, GP trainees, practice managers and practice nurses to discuss the response to the pandemic, along with representatives from public health, paediatrics, respiratory and general medicine.

Associate Medical Director for Primary Care Dr David Shaw said, “The Primary Care CCT works so well because we have had a shared goal from the start to do the best we can across primary care, in partnership with anyone who could help us help our patients.  

“We have used the CCT to develop our COVID Assessment Centres, to jointly develop one of the earliest staff testing programmes in the UK, and to help with the rapid roll-out of flu and COVID vaccination that resulted in Tayside being the first area in Scotland to use GP surgeries to immunise the communities they cared for.

“It has been a pleasure to work with such a positive and professional group.  We have had excellent clinical support from our clinicians and excellent managerial and finance support from our non clinicians to build the systems we needed to protect our patients.  

“The result has been that the care pathways we developed ourselves, and in partnership with other parts of NHS Tayside have spread across Scotland.”  

Kirriemuir GP Dr Scott Jamieson was recognised as RCGP Member of the Year for his efforts with the CCT, which included managing the weekly online meetings and creating a primary care newsletter that brought together all relevant COVID information for GPs.

Dr Jamieson also continued to support GP practices and care homes in Angus.

Dr Jamieson said, “My award reflects so much hard work by all the people working across health and social care in Tayside who have collaborated closely and achieved so much over the last 18 months in the face of the biggest public health challenge of a generation.

“We will always look to improve and it's great to be able to do so while surrounded by other like-minded enthusiastic colleagues.

“I am so grateful to have won this award but could only have done so with the great people working alongside me to make it all possible.”

Contact:

Louise Wilson

NHS Tayside Communications

(01382) 740718