Rajesh Jain, Clinical Lead for Critical Care, has won our You Made a Difference award after being nominated by his team. In the nomination, colleague Sanjay Wijayatilake, consultant in intensive care medicine, wrote: “Sitting back now, months after the Covid-19 pandemic started, I cannot believe the changes that have occurred in Critical Care, with staff at all levels engaged to give the best possible care in very difficult and challenging circumstances.”

“This was only possible due to the leadership of Dr Jain. He is a very quiet, and humble person and never boasts about his achievements. But he managed to get a very diverse group of ITU consultants to completely change how we work to provide the best possible care.

“He sourced equipment both ventilators and PPE, to keep our patients and our staff safe. In addition he dealt with multiple crises, such as staffing levels when a number of consultants including myself were off sick with Covid-19 in a calm and sensible manner.”

Rajesh has worked at our Trust for 12 years, and has been the lead for Critical Care since November. Talking about his experiences leading the team at such a challenging time, he said: “It has been one of the toughest challenges I’ve ever faced and I was initially very anxious and worried. As we started to plan ahead and with the support of my team, things started to fall into place. We worked extremely hard to increase the capacity of Critical Care five-fold.”

“This didn’t just involve increasing the number of beds, we also had to increase the number of staff working in the team and the equipment available. It wouldn’t have been possible without the whole team pulling together. What we achieved was phenomenal.”

Rajesh also talked about how important the support of his wife, Sweta, and his two sons, Akhil, 19 and Ayush, 14, was: “They didn’t get to see me at home very much, however they never complained and they supported me the whole time.”

The award was presented by our Chief Executive, Tony Chambers, who thanked Rajesh and his team for their hard work and remarkable achievements. Talking about how it felt to be nominated, Rajesh said: “I feel humbled and it was so kind of my team to nominate me. It was definitely a surprise – Sanjay told me we were going to a meeting, and we were actually going to my award presentation!”

To nominate a member of our staff who has made a difference, visit our website.