GP couple from Macduff delighted and humbled by Healthcare Hero award at Moray and Banffshire Heroes
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DOCTORS who provided care to patients for 33 years as a husband and wife team were surprised and honoured to have been named Healthcare Heroes of the Year.
Dr Alison Barbour and Dr Iain Brooker were shocked to win the title at the Moray and Banffshire Heroes Awards at the Mansefield Hotel in Elgin on Thursday night.
The couple, who met at Aberdeen University, spent most of their health career as GPs in charge of the Macduff Medical Practice.
After collecting the award, sponsored by Specsavers, Dr Barbour said: "We were very surprised to be nominated. We've had a lovely night and met a lot of super people.
"Some of the staff are still there we started with. It has been like extended family a lot of the time.
"We were a small practice for a lot of the time and just really expanded in the last five or six years.
"We took it over in 1988. In 2016 one of the other practices handed back their contract and we took over that, which doubled the size of the practice. And two and a half years ago another practice handed back their contract and we doubled again to 12,500 patients.
"Most of our working life we were in a practice of 2500 to 3000 patients, and it was just me and my husband but we needed more help as we got bigger."
The couple retired last December and are looking forward to the future.
For the last two years of general practice they had to contend with the Covid pandemic.
"It has made life very difficult and meant we had to change the way we worked completely," added Dr Barbour.
"It was quite an alien working environment with all the Covid measures and not being able to see people in person was the worst thing, because we relied on that so much.That was part of the fun part of the job, meeting your patients."
Dr Brooker added: "That (award) was a total surprise. We are delighted that people nominated us. It is not just about us, it is about recognising the people who work in the NHS and general practice, which is so important for communities.
"It's been a great way of marking our retirement to have this award."