Spotlight on Indira Esram

My team runs diabetes specialist clinics, providing support to patients, carers and other health professionals, including district nurses, GPs and practice nurses. As part of my role, I triage referrals for our services and liaise with community colleagues over plans of care.

I am responsible for running the BAME Network and as part of that I’m available to support staff with any queries or concerns they might have. I bridge the gap between BAME colleagues and management. If staff feel unable to raise concerns directly with their managers, I am here to help make sure BAME colleagues’ voices are heard. At the Countess we refuse to accept discrimination, therefore my role is to ensure we provide a safe and equal working space where all staff can share an open and honest dialogue.

We have had to find new ways of working, with changes being implemented very quickly, whilst keeping safety as our priority for everyone. It has been paramount on a personal level to support each other and help build resilience to get through this.

BAME colleagues, in particular, have been anxious, following evidence showing the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on their communities. I have tried to contact all BAME staff working within the Trust to inform them about my role and explain how I can provide support and guidance.

This initiative, which has already seen a 12% increase in Trust staff completing the latest NHS Staff Survey, is a longterm project to strengthen engagement with employees at all levels, from ward to Board.

Additional mental health support has been made available to all staff during the pandemic, while several new staff networks are also being created to provide focused support for minority groups, including LGBTQ+, neurodiversity and a women’s network. Every member of staff has been given a ‘thank you’ pin badge and an extra day of annual leave in 2021 as small tokens of appreciation. Results from an internal survey showed that improving wellbeing spaces would make a huge difference to Countess staff. Work is under way to deliver these improvements, using some of the money given to NHS Charities Together during the pandemic, alongside other initiatives by the Countess Charity (more on page 11). Fleur Flanagan, Head of Organisational Development, said: “We have seen during this pandemic just how much the NHS means to people, but we also know how difficult it has been for staff. Your Voice Matters is about reminding our teams how valued they are and how we can make the Countess better for everyone.”

In the first days of the vaccination programme, people aged over 80, NHS workers and social care staff were the first to start receiving jabs. Since then, more than 15,000 people have been inoculated by the Trust’s vaccination team, with most of them also returning for their second jabs at the Countess. Great grandmother Mona Thomas, 92, from Tarvin, became the first person in Cheshire to have the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on 8 December.

“I am very pleased, very proud really,” Mona said. “Everybody has been so kind.”

She was closely followed by Rathnam Viswanathan, 86, a retired psychologist, who said: “I have been shielding for over six months, so I’m absolutely delighted to have the vaccine, especially because my ethnicity, age and gender puts me at greater risk.” Earlier in the year, the Trust had great success with its COVID-19 Testing Centre, completing almost 20,000 swab tests from April to the end of October, and this efficiency was one of the reasons the Countess was selected to be in the first group of vaccination hubs. Amanda Woodard, Matron, who played a leading role in setting up and managing both the swabbing centre and the vaccination hub, was the first member of Trust staff to receive the vaccine and was also the one who administered Mona’s historic first jab. “I felt very proud and privileged to be both the first member of staff vaccinated and to also give the first vaccine at the Countess,” she said. “It’s been a real team effort. I’ve been so impressed by how everyone has adapted to everything this year.” Consultant anaesthetist Dr Santokh Singh says the COVID-19 pandemic has been unlike anything he’s experienced in his 25-year career on intensive care. After receiving his vaccine, he described how much of a relief it was for him and his colleagues to have that protection. “This vaccine gives us such a morale boost,” he said. “We can care for those who need us most and feel safer while doing so.”