I was treated like a black slave by white goddesses at private hospital, says nurse
A NURSE is suing a private healthcare firm after claiming she was treated like a ‘black slave’ by ‘white goddess’ managers.
Rosaline Caesar- Scammell, 57, claimed that she endured 21 years of racial abuse from colleagues at Nuffield Health, including comments about ‘monkeys’ and ‘blacking up’.
The senior ward sister, who was later fired over an ‘inaccurate’ message during the pandemic, also alleged that a white manager investigating the text said her ‘type of people’ were ‘all liars’.
The message, which she denies sending to a ward WhatsApp group, said there was no PPE and complained about nurses and patients having Covid-19.
Miss Caesar-Scammell, who worked at Nuffield’s hospital in Bourne
‘Hostility, racism and name calling’
mouth, is now suing the medical giant for race victimisation and wrongful dismissal.
An employment tribunal, held in Southampton, heard Miss CaesarScammell began working for Nuffield Health in 1999.
The former Royal Navy nurse worked her way up to the position of ward sister but claimed that as the only black nurse at the hospital she was ‘ostracised’ by some colleagues.
Miss Caesar-Scammell told the tribunal: ‘The experience of a black nurse is significantly different to that of a white nurse.
‘Due to the insidious nature of racism, the management team failed to recognise, understand or empathise with my lived experience.’
Claiming that she had suffered ‘21 years of hostility, racism and name calling’, she added: ‘I was disciplined or made an example of for the most minor and inconsequential mistake in comparison to my peers.
‘Nothing escaped them, everything was super sensationalised and led to the harshest of punishments. [I was] constantly singled out, blamed for things even when I wasn’t working.’
In April 2020, a text was sent from Miss Caesar-Scammell’s phone saying: ‘Here at work doing a 15x hr shift. Ran out of protective clothing again. All a bit scary as non [sic] of the patients here has been tested.’
The message continued: ‘Ten nurses from my department [are] either with Covid or isolating so just a handful of us holding the fort.’
The nurse said the message was a ‘hoax’, adding that her phone had been left unlocked on the nurses’ desk during her shift that day.
However Nuffield Health said the ‘inaccurate’ message caused ‘ deep concern’ to colleagues.
The tribunal heard that hospital outpatient manager Lorraine Hampton, who was investigating the text, joked about it being ‘black humour’ and later ‘screamed’ at her: ‘You type of people are all liars’. Miss Hampton denied the allegations.
Rebecca Hudson, who was chairman of the disciplinary process at Nuffield Health, told the tribunal that Miss Caesar- Scammell had referred to herself as a ‘black slave’ and to Miss Hampton as a ‘ white high goddess’ before being sacked.
However, the firm dismissed her appeals and fired her for gross misconduct in May 2020.
Nuffield Health has denied any wrongdoing and defended its decision. The tribunal continues.