Workforce issues
on-going disparity between NHS workers of colour and their White British counterparts. Specifically with regards to bullying within the workplace, the survey states that: “Many respondents experienced bullying in their workplace due to their ethnicity; 37% of respondents from Black backgrounds, 37% from Asian backgrounds, 34% from other backgrounds, 22% from Mixed backgrounds, 22% from White non-British backgrounds, and 5% from White British backgrounds reported this. Bullying was most often perpetrated by senior doctors, with 68% of those who had been bullied reporting that they had been bullied by senior doctor.”4 To support these findings, the report goes as far as to include testimonies from junior doctors who have been at the receiving end of such treatment. In particular, one junior doctor recounted that: “At times the tone of senior colleagues would be so rude that I would cry in the washroom. Fellow junior colleagues who were locally from the UK would notice this and also be rude (…). This would make me feel isolated and hesitate to ask for help.”5 A separate testimony from another junior
doctor describes being “constantly harassed and bullied” by a patient who had made inappropriate remarks and racist comments about the doctor’s place of birth, name and appearance. Concerning the emotional and professional repercussions of these incidents, BMA council chair, Chaand Nagpaul, stated: “The findings highlight the negative impact that racist experiences have on doctor retention, well- being, and career progression – an indisputable rebuttal to the Government’s claims in its Sewell report that the NHS is a success story for ethnic minority doctors.”6 Beyond the poor treatment BAME workers experience within the medical profession, racism also has its influence on career progression and promotional opportunities. An RCN employment report, published in
In a survey conducted last year by the British Medical Association, covering more than 2,000 doctors and medical students, over 90% of Black and Asian respondents said they believed racism to be an issue within the medical profession.
June 2022, found that there was a very clear distinction between ethnic groups when it came to securing a promotion at work: ‘While 66% of White and 64% of respondents from mixed ethnic backgrounds in this age group said they’d been promoted, this dropped to just 38% of Asian and 35% of Black respondents.’7 Indeed, such instances of structural racism prevents perfectly qualified healthcare workers from being able to put their knowledge into practice, stunting their development within the profession and further preventing doctors from fulfilling their full potential. To help give some scope on what has or
hasn’t changed within the NHS over the years regarding racism, it was important for me to interview BAME healthcare professionals from different time periods – both past and present. These individuals have all asked to remain anonymous. My first interview was with a woman I shall refer to as ‘Jane’. Jane was part of a much older generation of nurses, who originally arrived from the West Indies to tackle the shortage of staff and aid in Britain’s recovery following the Second World War. Jane first started working for the NHS in July
1965. She initially worked as a registered nurse, then as a midwife (she trained at Lewisham Hospital for that role), and then finally as a health visitor. Speaking on the racism she experienced throughout the course of her career, Jane
recalls a specific incident of racial abuse she sustained from a White patient while at work: “I remember once I was working on the ward a long time ago and an elderly gentlemen looked at me and said ‘oh, it’s a jungle bunny!’ I couldn’t help but look at him and think to myself what a fool he was.”
Considering that racism was especially
rampant during this time, it wasn’t at all surprising to hear from Jane that some patients had even gone as far as to claim that Black nurses had “monkey tails curled up under their clothes”.
Although she was perfectly qualified to do her
job, Jane observed that some patients regarded her as less educated and qualified than White doctors and nurses, so patients would often refuse to be attended by a clinician of colour. It wasn’t until Black nurses demonstrated that they were in fact just as capable and attentive as White nurses that people began to change their attitude towards BAME healthcare workers in general. Worse still, there was a clear animosity from some White colleagues towards Jane whenever they stepped outside into the corridors, despite working and spending time together earlier in the day: “Some White nurses would actually talk to you when you were in the wards, but when you were out in the corridors it was like they’d never seen you before.” Another interviewee, a consultant, describes a particular incident of discrimination whereby a senior member of staff made a comment about her head scarf in the presence of other workers after she was asked what her hair looked like underneath: “She said that: ‘In the morning when you’re changing to go back home, I’m going to burn your headscarf so then you have no choice but to leave the changing room without your headscarf and then you have to show us your hair.’ I was very taken aback by that and everyone else just sort of laughed.” The experience had upset her deeply, as she
recalls crying once she got back home later that day. After bringing this to the attention of her supervisor, the offender was reprimanded for what she had said but it wasn’t taken any further because they didn’t want to ‘damage someone’s reputation and years of hard work’.
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www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I August 2023
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