THE administration staff at Castlederg Surgery have been singled out for mention at a prestigious awards evening.

The team was named as winners of the Northern Ireland-wide "Practice Administration Team of The Year 2006" competition which is run by the Royal College of General Practitioners Northern Ireland (RCGPNI).

Val Fiddis of RCGP NI spoke of the importance of the administration team in the GP surgery "When we launched the competition five years ago we were not sure if practices would be interested in putting themselves forward for judging. However, it has now grown to such an extent that we had to extend our panel of judges to cope with the number of applications this year.

" We had such an overwhelming number of applications that many did not even make it to the short-list. We selected ten finalists who were all visited and judged on various areas of their work. Competition was fierce and the winners and first and second runners- up were not announced until the night. Castlederg Group Surgery have scooped the top prize and this is due to their professionalism, excellent team work and patient centred focus. They really are an excellent team and are our Team Of The Year, said Ms Fiddis.