BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : BLACK BRITISH DOCTORS LIVE WITH DAILY RACISM - THE ISSUE OF IMMIGRATION HAVE HIT BLACK PEOPLE VERT VERT HARD ON A DAILY BASES :

  BLACK             SOCIAL             HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Doctors live with daily racism

by JENNY HOPE, Daily Mail

Racism in the NHS is rife, with black and Asian doctors and nurses facing daily harassment and bullying, says a report by an independent think-tank.

The career path for non-white staff is too often blocked and they are more likely to get shunted into unpopular specialities and inner-city general practice, says the King's Fund.

It found that while one-third of hospital doctors are from minority ethnic groups, few were promoted to the post of consultant.

Naaz Coker, editor of the report, Racism in Medicine, said: 'No aspect of a doctor's working life is untouched by racism.

Discrimination begins in medical schools and affects the whole person's career. 'Harassment and bullying from both colleagues and patients are daily facts of life for black and Asian doctors.'

A Department of Health census cited in the report showed that 18.4 per cent of 64,000 UK medical and dental staff were Asian. But they held just 8.9 per cent of consultant posts.

Black doctors made up 3.8 per cent of the workforce, but accounted for only 2.1 per cent of consultants.

Non-white doctors who became consultants were most likely to specialise in the 'Cinderella services' of geriatrics or accident and emergency, rather than surgery, which is seen as the most glamorous option, the report said.

The proportion of non-white consultants was highest in geriatrics (30.4 per cent), A&E (27), and general psychiatry (24) but lowest in general surgery (14).

'Prejudice influences selection in the context of training and recruitment and discrimination is expressed in the fact that non-white doctors are clustered in the middle ranks,' says the report.

Miss Coker said the situation was just as bad in nursing with black and Asian nurses 'voting with their feet' and leaving the NHS despite staff shortages.

Less than one per cent of senior director positions in nursing were held by black and Asian staff, who made up eight per cent of all nurses.

Studies of almost 1,000 NHS organisations found that less than one per cent of chief executives were non-white.

The report said the police have made rapid advances in dealing with racism in the ranks but the NHS is 'still stuck in the Sixties'.

It called on NHS chief executives and personnel managers to take a bigger role in recruitment of doctors, instead of leaving it to the largely white medical establishment.