Health Awards Doctor and Leader of the Year winners from NHS Grampian

Dr Balasubramaniam Vijayan (Gastroenterology) has taken home the Doctor Award while Dr Fiona Mackenzie (Consultant Clinical Scientist) is the winning Leader of the Year.

The team at Rosewell House were also shortlisted in the Integrated Care category.

These are the most prestigious and recognised awards for those working across NHS Scotland and its partners to deliver high quality health and social care services.

Dr Fiona Mackenzie (Consultant Clinical Scientist) won Leader of the Year

Dr Vijayan is particularly touched his nomination came from one of his patients.

He explained: “It was a shock and it’s slowly sinking in.

"The best accolade for a doctor’s career is thanks from patients.

"This award is for the entire team in gastroenterology in NHSG and I am proud to be a part of this wonderful unit.

Scottish Health Award winners celebrate.

"I’d like to offer my thanks to all the staff in wards 104 and 301, the Peter Brunt Centre team, liver specialist nurses, endoscopy unit staff, alcohol liaison teams and all the medical staff, speciality colleagues and others we work with.

“Every patient is important and we go the extra mile to help them in any way we can – a few extra minutes to listen to their problems and care for them makes all the difference to how we can help and support them.”

Dr Mackenzie is also very pleased to have won an award, having coordinated testing for Covid-19 across NHS Scotland laboratories.

She said: “I hope this shines a spotlight on the medical microbiology and virology laboratories across NHS Scotland. These services provided support to the whole of Scotland throughout the pandemic and colleagues went above and beyond to get the service up and running and to deliver it.”

Dr Mackenzie says services worked together as part of a network across Scotland before the pandemic and this partnership has been strengthened and expanded during the last few years.

She added: “It was a total team effort involving 15 health boards, national procurement colleagues, the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland as well as our wonderful laboratories. The award hasn’t quite sunk in yet but I’m really pleased and it was a great night.”

NHS Grampian Chief Executive Caroline Hiscox added: “Huge congratulations to Dr Vijayan and Dr Mackenzie as well as their wider teams and all those who support them, and of course to the team at Rosewell House as runners up.

"We are very, very proud of all our dedicated, hard working colleagues who do absolutely everything they can to put patients first, support each other and provide the best possible services for everyone across Grampian.”

Run by the Daily Record in partnership with NHS Scotland and the Scottish Government, the Scottish Health Awards are now well established in the Scottish calendar and recognise those that go that extra mile to improve the health and wellbeing of others.

Find out more at: scottishhealthawards.com