Physiotherapist Mhairi Burke named Scotland's Allied Health Professional of the year

Physiotherapist Mhairi Burke was named allied health professional (AHP) of the year at last night's (3 November) Scottish Health Awards 2022.

Mhairi is based at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, where she is an AHP team lead. She received the prestigious award at the O2 Academy in Edinburgh, having been shortlisted among two others in the AHP category. It was one of 16 categories in the awards list and was sponsored by Robert Gordon University, which offers a physiotherapy degree course.

The other shortlisted AHPs were Shunga Mighton, from NHS Western Isles, and Karen Robertson, who works at NHS Dumfries.

On receiving her award, which comes with an impressive looking plague featuring her name and employer’s name, Mhairi tweeted: ‘Taking this baby home to #clyde.’

The accolade was for ‘providing excellent care and support for people in Scotland’ and judges had to whittle the finalists down from a total of 750 nominations.

Staff showed 'incredible resolve and flexibility'

‘Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are a distinct group of practitioners who apply their expertise to assess, diagnose, treat, discharge and rehabilitate people of all ages across health, education, housing, social care, voluntary and independent sectors,’ the awards website states.

‘Since March 2020, NHS Scotland and its partners across health and social care have risen to the challenge of dealing with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The NHS was put on an emergency footing – maintaining urgent care, flexing capacity from paused services to meet demand and developing innovative ways of working.

‘Those working across health and social care have shown incredible resolve and flexibility, in many cases being deployed into new roles and into new ways of working across our health and social care system,’ the website adds.

The event’s partners were the Daily Record, Healthier Scotland Scottish Government and NHS Scotland.

Full details of the winners will be available in due course. See: https://scottishhealthawards.com/2022/en/page/home