A worthy winner

Narrowing it down to a shortlist was hard enough but trying then to decide on an overall winner was even more difficult. In the end though the judges were unanimous and the award goes to MF Dental.

On the way to MF Dental schülke’s Scotland and Ireland regional rep Allan Wright explained to me how he had actually had to persuade Alison McGugan (MF Dental’s practice manager) to enter the competition – and how striking it was that the team didn’t really appreciate how good they actually were. On introduction Alison said that the team was “chuffed to bits” to have been shortlisted, but she seemed to constantly be trying to underplay their achievements. There was barely a sentence gone by without her stressing that she was “sure all practices do the same”, or that it was “just as you would expect” – and she seemed almost apologetic that “a small practice, out of the way in Airdrie” had been shortlisted. When I questioned her about this she commented “we tend to hide our light under a bushel in Scotland”. Well I hope she will forgive me for trying to change all that because MF Dental was a worthy winner of the first ever schülke Infection Prevention and Control Practice of the Year competition, and in particular, Alison’s attitude and commitment are shining examples of good practice that are worthy of attention.