The efforts of a woman who has worked in health and social care in the Falkirk community for almost 30 years have been officially recognised by HM the Queen.

Nicola Harvey (48) received a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to health and social care during the COVID-19 pandemic and immediately said the award was down to the hard work of colleagues.

Nicola said: “I’m over the moon but a bit shocked. It’s just humbling and overwhelming – I was only doing my job. I’ve being working at this for 27 years, it’s just what I do.

“This was a team effort and all the staff have been working hard for the last 14 months, so this honour is actually for all of them.”
Nicola was a key member of the Incident Response Team for her local healthcare partnership in Falkirk, while continuing to undertake her duties as Home First manager.

During the initial stages of the pandemic, she took responsibility, with her team, to ensure any person who was unnecessarily delayed in hospital was discharged, working in close liaison with the acute hospitals and families.

As the pandemic progressed she supported care homes in her area, helping ensure safe practices and adequate staffing, working many additional hours, into weekends and evenings to ensure the safety of those residents and those working in care homes.

Nicola also took considerable care to ensure staff working in a care home setting were supported both with the provision of, and instructed in, the correct use of personal protective equipment, or PPE as it is known.

Text and photo courtesy of Falkirk Herald