BAME doctors still don’t feel protected from coronavirus

A survey from the British Medical Association has found that, a year on from the first coronavirus patients being admitted in UK hospitals, Black, Asian and other minority ethnicity doctors still don’t feel protected from coronavirus in the workplace.

The research found that an alarming 72 per cent of BAME doctors felt only partly or not protected at all. In comparison, for non-BAME respondents that figure was 60 per cent.

Doctors were also asked about their confidence in having sufficient and properly tested and fitted PPE during this current wave. The BMA says that 16 per cent of respondents said they were not at all confident and just under a quarter said they were only partly confident. For white respondents the figures were just under 10 per cent and just under 17 per cent respectively.    

Equally worrying is the fact that when it came to being assessed by their employer for their level of risk from the virus, the results indicate much more needs to be done in this area. Although a little over 46 per cent say they have been risk assessed and feel confident that appropriate adjustments have been made, 14 per cent say they have not been assessed and feel that adjustments are needed, and a further 15 per cent say whilst they have been assessed, the adjustments now need updating. By comparison, the results for non-BAME respondents show that 55 per cent have been risk assessed and only seven per cent of non-BAME respondents reported that their assessments now needed updating.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, Chair of BMA Council said:“We should not have a situation in this country where health and social care workers – BAME or otherwise - are feeling unsafe or at risk from death or disease in their workplace – especially in the NHS where that work is to save the lives of others. It is untenable that a year into his pandemic we are seeing results like this.

“These results underpin a horrible truth; we have known from very early on in the pandemic that health and social care workers of BAME background are more likely to become ill and die from this virus. Covid has exacerbated existing racial and cultural inequities within our health service that have contributed to this disparity.

“The BMA has lobbied long and hard for greater protection and effective risk assessment for at-risk BAME workers and we now want the Westminster Government to bring in proper solutions to address the known ethnic disparities and inequalities. We need to see further and better research and investment, focussed on where it is most needed to bring an end to this dreadful state of affairs.”