This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
NHS treatment of minority ethnic staff highlighted
The latest workforce race equality data has shown that almost a third of black and minority ethnic staff in the health service have been bullied, harassed or abused by their own colleagues in the past year.
Five years after NHE England launched a drive to improve race equality, the data reflects very poorly on the health organisation, with minority ethnic staff in the NHS reporting a worsening experience as employees across four key areas. It has even raised concerns over whether the health service was ‘institutionally racist’.
The data indicates that 29 per cent of BME staff reported being bullied or abused by other NHS workers, up from 27 per cent in 2016. More BME staff also reported being discriminated against by their manager, up one per cent to 15.4 per cent since 2016.
The number of BME staff who felt they have equal career progression had also fallen, alongside a rise in staff reporting abuse and bullying from patients and the public.
Across England, 49 NHS trusts have a board that was comprised completely of white directors. However, the total number of BME staff at a very senior manager level has increased by 21, from 122 in 2018 to 143 in 2019.
Paul Donaldson, from the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association trade union, said: “It is deeply concerning to see that progress has not only stalled but reversed. These shocking figures demonstrate that simply hoping that the situation will improve is not good enough. We need a system-wide approach to tackling these deep-rooted issues, which could in some cases amount to institutional racism.
“We have been calling for an independent inquiry into the ethnicity pay gap in medicine for a number of years and we reiterate that call today. We also need to move towards a situation where nobody working in the NHS should have to feel unsafe when they are at work.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has written to all NHS staff about the problem of violence faced by those working for the NHS, referring to the 2019 NHS Staff Survey.
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