`Unconscious racism` in UK`s state-run health service |
A senior Indian-origin medic who heads Britain`s leading doctors` union on called on the government-funded National Health Service to treat its black and minority ethnic doctors more fairly, alleging that there is an “unconscious racism” within the system. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), said despite making up a third of the National Health Service (NHS) workforce, the Black And Minority Ethnic (BAME) doctors were not proportionately represented at senior managerial levels of the UK`s health service. A mother who hates her body, after losing seven stone left her with a "revolting" apron of excess skin, was told it would not be removed on the NHS as the health service is there to save lives, not to make her "beach body ready for summer". BAME doctors are more prone to bullying and being referred to the country`s medical watchdog General Medical Council (GMC) over allegations of misconduct, he claimed.Nagpaul cited the findings of a new survey he launched as the first Indian-origin head of the association to warn against an “unconscious racism” within the system acting as a barrier for BAME doctors in the NHS, many of them Indian. “As well as a culture of fear and blame, the survey concluded that the BAME doctors remain disadvantaged by the NHS.
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