Emma Pickup, Partner in our Health Team had the pleasure of speaking with Claudette Elliott as part of our Black History Month celebrations and focus on reclaiming the narrative of health disparities in the Black community.
Claudette is a highly respected public sector senior manager with over 38 years’ experience in health and social care. She is Non-Executive Director and Deputy Chair of Pennine Care NHS Trust and she recently became a NED at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, bringing her wealth of experience to one of the UK’s leading heart and chest hospitals. In both these roles, she works with the executive teams to guide strategic direction and ensure high standards of care for patients.
Claudette is committed to supporting ethical and values based practice, is a compassionate leader, and feels strongly about supporting and working with staff, engaging with people using services to ensure they have a positive experiences, along with connecting with local residents and communities.
Watch their conversation:
333 Pledges 333 Lives:
This year’s Black History Month, we are focusing on health disparities within the Black community. This aligns with the Black History Month theme of reclaiming narratives, where we aim to challenge and reshape the narrative around healthcare inequalities and highlight the leaders and exemplary leadership behaviours driving change in this space.
One of the health disparities you can take action on to support is the lack of diverse stem cell donors on the register, which Emma and Claudette discussed at the end of their conversation.
In the UK, people of Black African and Black Caribbean heritage have significantly lower chances of finding a matching stem cell (bone marrow) donor compared to a patient from white, northern European heritage. This disparity costs lives.
Did you know that stem cell donation is ethnicity-specific, meaning you are likely to find a donor from someone with the same or similar heritage as you? By increasing the number of people of Black African and Black Caribbean heritage joining the register, we can begin to address this disparity.
By pledging today, you can help close this gap and give hope to someone in need, reclaiming the narrative around health disparities in the UK.
Watch more:
Beverley De-Gale and Orin Lewis from ACLT: the importance of diverse stem cell donors
Patrick Vernon OBE on building confidence and trust in the NHS
Anthony Nolan answers 8 common questions about joining the stem cell donor register