Author Topic: Racism The New Drug In Medicine? (Say It Ain't So)  (Read 152 times)

Damon X Reppin ATL

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Racism The New Drug In Medicine? (Say It Ain't So)
« on: April 30, 2003, 05:58:24 PM »
NHS is 'chronically racist'
 
By Caroline Ryan
BBC News Online health staff in Harrogate  


 
Ethnic minority nurses face discrimination, leaders say
The NHS is "chronically and consistently" racially biased in the way it deals patients and staff, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has said.
Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, made the claim at the Royal College of Nursing's Annual Congress in Harrogate.

He said: "The way the NHS works and the way it deals with clients and employs people has led chronically and consistently to racially biased outcomes."

He said patients suffered because certain conditions were not given high priority.

 Nursing is predominately white

Beverley Malone, RCN General Secretary  
"You will find that among ethnic minority communities, some conditions to which they are prone are not given the same priority as others."

Mr Phillips, who chaired a discussion on diversity at Congress, said discrimination affected conditions such as thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia.

Tradition

But he said NHS staff were also affected.

"Ethnic minorities tend to be at the bottom layers of the pyramid."

He talked about "snow-capping", where there was "black at the bottom and white at the top".

Beverley Malone, General Secretary of the RCN, said: "Nursing is predominately white. That's part of the tradition."

She added: "Diversity has to be seen as a strength."

The RCN reported two thirds of black and ethnic minority nurses report they have experienced racial harassment from patients.

A third said they had experienced racial problems with other nurses.

The Department of Health said steps were being taken to ensure the NHS was more representative of the general public.

A spokesman said: "We believe the way to make the NHS more representative of the people it serves is to give people a greater say in the way their services are run.

"The Health and Social Care Bill and the establishment of NHS Foundation Trusts will give for the first time in the history of the NHS local people more say in how their hospitals are run.

"Local people will be elected to the Board of Governors of NHS Foundation Trusts making them more representative of their communities."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We believe the way to make the NHS more representitive of the people it serves is to give people a greater say in the way their services are run."

 
« Last Edit: April 30, 2003, 05:59:08 PM by Damon X Reppin ATL »