NHS has racial bias, says doctors’ chief
The NHS is “subconsciously racist” and routinely overlooks ethnic minority doctors for senior posts, the head of the British Medical Association has said. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Chaand Nagpaul said a culture of “inequality” had stalled the careers of ethnic minority doctors in favour of less qualified white colleagues. He said the NHS had “moved a long way” in recent decades, but said many bosses remained in the grip of “subconscious bias”.
‘There are other parts of the world where doctors progress based on their ability, not their accent’
THE NHS is “subconsciously racist” and routinely overlooks ethnic minority doctors for senior posts, the head of the British Medical Association has said.
Chaand Nagpaul, the first non-white doctor to lead the BMA, said patients were being deprived of the most skilled clinicians because of an entrenched bias in the system.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said a culture of “inequality” had stalled the careers of BME (black and minority) doctors in favour of less qualified white colleagues.
His intervention follows the publication of figures showing that only 7 per cent of senior clinical posts were filled by BME doctors, despite them making up a third of the workforce.
A GP for 29 years, Dr Nagpaul described being rejected from GP training nine times in the Eighties on the basis, he says, of his Indian name. He said the NHS had “moved a long way” in recent decades, but there was still a problem of a lack of promotion for BME doctors and a higher chance of those staff being subject to bullying.
“There is probably a subconscious bias that needs to be addressed,” Dr Nagpaul said. Asked if he believed such bias amounted to racism, he added: “Yes. For example, there is evidence that doctors from BME origins face disciplinary procedures more than whites. We need to address that.”
Analysis this year showed 10.2 per cent of BME doctors had formal complaints made against them to the General Medical Council, compared with 8.8 per cent of white doctors, which prompted the regulator to investigate.
“At every stage in my career I have prepared and worked much harder than I would have needed to in order to secure positions.
I’ve just accepted that,” he said. “Sadly there is little doubt there is still a lack of equality in terms of staff in the NHS. That’s of detriment to the population.”
The son of Indian parents, Dr Nagpaul, pictured right, arrived in the UK aged seven when his family
moved from Kenya. He subsequently undertook medical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, and despite “as strong a CV you can get”, suffered discrimination, he said. Dr Nagpaul added that countries with comparable health systems appeared to be fairer to BME doctors.
“There are other parts of the world where doctors progress based on their ability, not their accent,” he said.
“I think the public want the best possible doctors looking after them.”
The Race Equality Foundation appeared to agree, suggesting many current NHS bosses believed themselves “more progressive than they really are” and were “complacent” about the experience of non-white doctors.
Dr Nagpaul was speaking ahead of publication tomorrow of a BMA survey of 8,000 doctors, which is expected to reveal an increase in doctors experiencing bullying or harassment at work.
The report is also expected to note a rise in those who feel the safety of their practice is being compromised by pressures on the system.
A long-term critic of the NHS internal market which forces hospitals to bid to provide local services, he called for legislative change to stop “market transactions” between units. He also criticised Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, for his advocacy of the “virtual” consultation service, GP At Hand, which provides online consultations and registers patients at a hub surgery rather than a more local practice.
Although Mr Hancock champions technological innovation, Dr Nagpaul said the focus on virtual consultations was wrong. “There are much greater technological issues in the NHS, such as hospitals still relying far too much on paper, and communication between hospitals being pretty much non-existent,” he said. “Patients are being seen in hospitals without their information in front of them every day of the week. The scale of waste is huge.”
NHS England said the proportion of “very senior” managers from BME backgrounds had risen 18 per cent in 2016-17. A spokesman said: “Ensuring our workforce is more representative of the people we care for is good for both staff and patients.”