Ethnic minority nurses suffer in promotion race
Not enough get into top-level NHS roles
BLACK and Asian nurses are FOUR TIMES less likely to be in senior roles than white colleagues.
NHS England figures show BAME medics and health visitors only occupy 170 of 2,115 senior “band 8c” positions with a salary more than £56,000.
And that’s despite accounting for a quarter of health service nursing staff.
Some hospitals have hundreds of BAME nurses on the payroll but NHS Digital, which handles health service statistics, reveals numbers in senior roles at many are five or fewer.
And it is likely several Trusts do not have a single BAME nurse who has reached a high-responsibility position.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ in London has a statue to black nursing pioneer Mary Seacole and has 2,140 BAME nurses – nearly half its nursing workforce.
Yet when it comes to band 8c roles, just five of the 60 posts available have been filled by BAME candidates.
The London North West University Healthcare Trust runs five hospitals and has England’s highest proportion of BAME nurses at 76 per cent – but they are in just a quarter of 8c roles.
Manchester University NHS Trust has only five BAME senior staff in 40 top nursing jobs and at Leeds Teaching Hospital – which has 755 BAME nurses in a total of 3,930 – none are in the 25 top roles. The Trust says it is trying to change that situation.
At Imperial College Healthcare, in London, more than half of the 3,490 nurses are BAME, but they are found in just five of the 35 8c top roles.
Across the whole of the English health service, there are 338,115 nurses or health visitors, of whom 86,910 are categorised as BAME.
Wendy Irwin, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Our own research shows BAME nursing staff experience racism, lower pay, harassment and limited career progression. This is clearly unjust. The pace of change is glacial.”
The NHS said: “It’s important to increase the number of BAME nurses in senior roles.
“The NHS recognises more needs to be done.”