Pandemic Hero

Roshni Best

This past year has been a tough one, with lockdowns and strict guidelines in force in the UK and across the world. As life was affected in so many ways, we know members of the Fettes community stepped up to go above and beyond to help others during this pandemic. One such person is Roshni Best (Inv-CW 2001–2008). The amazing work of Roshni was brought to our attention by Urosh Teodorovich (Inv-Ki 2001–2008) who nominated her for recognition:

“One of my oldest friends, Roshni Best (CW 2001–2008), has been heavily involved in the NHS’s vaccine rollout and I feel her story is worth sharing.

“Roshni left her job in strategy consulting and volunteered at the start of the pandemic to support the NHS with pro bono consulting services. She joined as Lead Analyst on NHS England’s Flu Programme and created a model to estimate the number of people eligible for flu vaccination based on former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s proposal for all over 50s in England to be vaccinated. Roshni’s efforts and exact figures were quoted in front page news in July 2020.

“She carried this experience into becoming the first analyst in NHS England’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. In this capacity, Roshni was in charge of estimating the number of people in England who would need to be vaccinated as part of each JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) cohort, and the number of staff, venues, and materials it would take to deliver the programme as quickly as possible. In fact, the Prime Minister’s announcement that 12.3 million people in England would be vaccinated by 15th February (equivalent to 15 million across the entire UK) came directly from Roshni’s work.

“Now that the programme is live, Roshni monitors uptake across the population and helps publish daily, weekly, and monthly statistics on the number of people who have been vaccinated across different areas, age-groups, riskcategories, ethnicities, and levels of deprivation. This data informs decisions on where vaccine supply is sent, and areas that need to be prioritised.

“Roshni has spoken to me at length about how rewarding this work has been – especially knowing that she has contributed to what has been such a successful vaccination programme. Over 30 million people have been vaccinated in England since early December with Public Health England recently estimating that this has saved over 6,000 lives.”

We got in touch with Roshni to ask for her perspective:

Why did you first volunteer to support the NHS at the start of the pandemic?

I had recently left my job in strategy consulting and was looking for new career opportunities, which was challenging at a time when very few people were hiring! I sent my details and CV to a charity who were looking for volunteers to help with the crisis and a senior manager from NHS England found my profile. It was a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact and use my skill set in a more meaningful way.

What has it been like working within the NHS during this time?

It has been very intense but really rewarding! One of the strangest things has been that I have never met any of my colleagues in person – I started the role during the first lockdown and have been working from home since then. Hopefully I can meet the rest of my team soon, now that things are opening up.

Did you feel any pressure in the role? If so, what was the pressure and how did you handle it?

Yes, the pressure has been huge! I need to provide the numbers to support critical decisions in the vaccination programme which often come up last minute and have tight deadlines. Sometimes you can get stuck in the details, panicking about urgent issues like ‘How do we estimate the number of Unpaid Carers in England, before the Secretary of State makes an announcement in two hours?’ In those moments, you have to take a step back and remember that the programme as a whole has been an incredible success, and that the problems we are solving are often complicated, so not having an accurate answer immediately is not the end of the world.

How does it feel knowing you have contributed in such a positive way at a difficult time?

Given that I’m not at the front line – it sometimes is hard to recognise that I have personally made an impact on the vaccine programme and the COVID response, but I still feel really proud when I see numbers I have helped to pull together mentioned in the news. I’m about to get my first dose this weekend – and I’m sure it will be emotional to actually go through the vaccination process that I helped to design over a year ago. I still remember our early pilot programmes – where we timed how long it would take a volunteer to get a syringe from a freezer and then inject saline into an orange! It’s pretty incredible to see how far we’ve come since then.

Do you have long term plans to continue being involved in the NHS?

I’m currently working on strategic planning for the COVID vaccine booster programme which could start from September. I’m still trying to work out what I will do once the vaccine programme becomes more ‘business as usual’ and requires less modelling support – we’ll see!