{"id":2513,"date":"2023-04-02T17:00:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2023-03-29T11:16:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T11:16:22","slug":"racism-we-have-to-stop-looking-the-other-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/2023\/04\/02\/racism-we-have-to-stop-looking-the-other-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Racism: we have to stop looking the other way"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s blog is by Roger Kline (@rogerkline) who is a Research Fellow at Middlesex University Business School.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In just one month the NHS has lost four Employment Tribunals in which judges heavily criticised NHS Trusts for race discrimination, another Trust had to apologise for repeated examples of racist behaviour by its staff towards colleagues and patients, whilst a national NHS body was found to have deliberately covered up racism. In three of the four Tribunals involved race discrimination against nurses and midwives.<\/p>\n

Michelle Cox was a nurse manager of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) heritage with impeccable NHS service, who raised concerns (which the Tribunal confirmed were accurate) about her own treatment at work and about a serious breach of legal obligations in respect of independent review panels<\/p>\n

She was subjected, the court found, to a catalogue of detriment made worse by the repeated failures of NHS England, to investigate fairly, to hold a fair grievance appeal,\u00a0 and to understand the law. The Tribunal described Michelle\u2019s senior nurse manager\u2019s evidence as \u201ccontinued evasion when challenged, and her failure to explain her conduct at the material time, on occasion providing new excuses not mentioned before or to the grievance appeal\u201d. This nurse manager has since been promoted as have the investigator and the HR adviser. Michelle Cox has not worked since. Read the tribunal decision here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adelaide Kweyama was an agency nurse working in CNWLFT. She reported racist slurs from patients, including the n-word, and the following month, she reported how a patient was racially abusive towards her. Her manager, another nurse, then told her: \u201cYou need to get a pool of bleach and bleach your skin so that you come back tomorrow white and the patients will be nice to you.\u201d The Court found there was no proper follow-up of her complaint about that incident and described it as an \u201cabsolute abdication of the positive responsibility on managers\u201d. The tribunal decision can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kemi Akinmeji was a midwife at the EKFT which had been previously found to have a toxic environment. The Tribunal heard how a previous grievance raised by another black midwife over how duties were allocated had highlighted the risk of unconscious bias, but plans to appoint a \u201crace champion\u201d had not been acted on. Adelaide eventually left after a number of concerns she had raised about how she was treated had been ignored. On her last day, a senior midwife said: \u201cIt\u2019s Kemi\u2019s last day \u2013 everyone check your bags\u201d at a time when there had been actual thefts from staff. When the claimant asked the trust about action resulting from this, she was told that the midwife had since attended unconscious bias training and had been warned of the potential for disciplinary action if repeated. The Court, however, heard neither of these things had happened. Read the tribunal decision here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the same month, BHRUHFT was found to have racially discriminated after two scientists were increasingly marginalised and excluded because of their race and then penalised for complaining about that treatment. Click here<\/a> for the tribunal decision.<\/p>\n

The following week EEASFT apologised to BME staff after a report found multiple cases of \u201c<\/strong>monkey noises and reference to banana boats were made\u201d whilst colleagues fasting during Ramadan were openly laughed at. Just one third of BME staff there felt inappropriate behaviour or language would be dealt with. The tribunal decision can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile at NHSBT, it was reported there were \u201cdeliberate attempts\u2019 to conceal racism<\/a>\u201d. All this matters for many reasons.<\/p>\n