Impact on BME communities due to structural inequalities

NHS Confederation’s BME Leadership Network has said that the effects of health and socio-economic inequalities and institutional racism lie behind the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Following a research study into the underlying factors, the network’s report also identifies failure to lift ‘hostile environment’ policies, such as eligibility checks and NHS charges for overseas visitors, lack of translation services, and a culture of bullying affecting BME healthcare workers as contributing factors.

Interviewees said this bullying culture has led BME employees to be less likely to raise concerns or share their experiences, with 88 per cent of survey respondents saying staff do not speak out because they fear losing their jobs. Furthermore, they felt that the NHS and government has not taken sufficient steps to handle many of these root causes, with as many as 92 per cent urging for greater acknowledgement of the role of institutional racism in health services.

The BME Leadership Network recommends that the government and the NHS, should review the potential for hostile environment policies to be a vehicle for promoting institutional racism, and to treat long-term structural health inequities and institutional racism as critical factors in any further research or work on the impact of coronavirus on BME communities.

Joan Saddler, director of partnerships and equality at the NHS Confederation, who co-authored the report, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the issue of health inequalities into the foreground in the starkest terms. Now is the time to move beyond platitudes and empty promises. It is absolutely imperative that structural health inequities and institutional racism in the NHS are treated as critical factors in service planning, the Covid-19 response and its aftermath.”