British BAME and foreign doctors ‘suffer discrimination throughout careers’

British doctors of BAME origin and overseas-trained medics working in the UK experience “persistent and pernicious” inequality throughout their careers, the medical regulator has warned.

The General Medical Council (GMC) said too many doctors are still being reported by their employers for alleged misconduct compared with white British-trained medics.

Doctors also experience “discrimination and disadvantage” in their efforts to progress medical careers because of a hostile “culture” in too many parts of the NHS, it said.

The report, by the GMC’s chief executive, Charlie Massey, is intended to stamp out discrimination.

Massey said, "For too many doctors, medicine is a story of discrimination and disadvantage. From the early days of education and training, to the leadership positions of latter years, issues of inequality are persistent and pernicious. This unfairness is deep-rooted and longstanding. It undermines doctors’ morale and ability to perform at their best. And it shames our health services. Fair treatment is not the preserve of a select few – it is the right of all doctors, regardless of who they are.”

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Source: The Guardian, 17 October 2024