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Showing results for tags 'Discrimination'.
Found 169 results
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 Recovery Committee has published its report on Long Covid and post-Covid syndrome, urging the Scottish Government to take action to address the stigma surrounding the condition and improve awareness among the public and healthcare professionals. The inquiry focussed on the awareness and recognition, therapy and rehabilitation, and study and research linked to Long Covid, with the Committee noting “concern” in their findings over reports of patients being unable to get the correct diagnosis and the lack of treatment for common conditions associated with the condition. The Committee said it was “deeply saddened” to learn about the stigma faced by those with lived and living experience of Long Covid, and the report highlights the impact that the lack of awareness and recognition of Long Covid can have on those with the condition.
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Content ArticleThis BMJ Leader article from Roger Kline looks at how to tackle structural racism in the NHS, discussing psychological safety and inclusion, and the role leaders need to play.
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Content ArticleIn the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are all too aware of the urgent health inequalities that plague our world. But these inequalities have always been urgent: modern medicine has a colonial and racist history. Here, in an essential and searingly truthful account, Annabel Sowemimo unravels the colonial roots of modern medicine. Tackling systemic racism, hidden histories and healthcare myths, Sowemimo recounts her own experiences as a doctor, patient and activist. Divided exposes the racial biases of medicine that affect our everyday lives and provides an illuminating - and incredibly necessary - insight into how our world works, and who it works for.
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Content ArticleCervical cancer disparities persist for Black women despite targeted efforts. Reasons for this vary; one potential factor affecting screening and prevention is perceived discrimination in medical settings. This US study in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities aimed to describe experiences of perceived discrimination in medical settings for Black women and to explore the impact on cervical cancer screening and prevention. The authors concluded that Black women engaging in healthcare are experiencing perceived discrimination in medical settings. They suggest that future interventions should address the poor quality of medical encounters that Black women experience.
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Content ArticleA just and learning culture is the balance of fairness, justice, learning–and taking responsibility for actions. It is not about seeking to blame the individuals involved when care in the NHS goes wrong, nor the absence of responsibility and accountability. This report by NHS Resolution aims to promote the value of a person-centred workplace that is compassionate, safe and fair.
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Content ArticleThe concerns that health and care workers and the public share with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) about health and care services are critical to its work. It is also vital that CQC listens to its own staff. This review explores whether there are areas of culture or process within CQC that need to be improved in relation to listening, learning, and responding to concerns. The review focused on these key areas: Organisational findings Reviewing how well we listen to whistleblowing concerns. Reviewing our Freedom to Speak Up policy. Learning from the tribunal case. Reviewing how we listen to our staff. Reviewing the expectations and experiences of people who raise concerns with us.
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Content ArticleThis letter to NHS mental health trusts, Integrated Care Boards and Commissioners outlines NHS England's position on the use of Serenity Integrated Mentoring (SIM) in NHS mental health services. SIM is a model of care that has been used with people with mental health issues who are considered high-intensity users of emergency services. It is a controversial approach as it instructs services providing emergency care not to provide support to these individuals.
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Content ArticleIn light of NHS England recently losing an employment tribunal case against a senior black nurse on grounds of race discrimination and whistleblowing, Roger Kline casts light on learnings from the case for NHS board members and HR departments.
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Content ArticleThe National Guardian’s Office has published Listening to Workers – the report following its Speak Up review of NHS ambulance trusts in England. The review found the culture in ambulance trusts did not support workers to speak up and that this was having an impact on worker wellbeing and ultimately patient safety.
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Content ArticleThe 2022 Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) report enables organisations to compare their performance with others in their region and those providing similar services, with the aim of encouraging improvement by learning and sharing good practice. It provides a national picture of WRES in practice, to colleagues, organisations and the public on the developments in the workforce race equality agenda The WRES provide detailed analysis to enable employers to understand how their staff experience compares with others in their region and with similar specialism.
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Content ArticleIn this opinion piece for the BMJ, Partha Kar, consultant in diabetes and endocrinology, argues that in spite of extensive research and discussion around the need to tackle race inequalities in the medical workforce, little progress has been made at a system level. He highlights the importance of ensuring the Medical Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Action Plan is implemented effectively, with special attention being paid to tracking GMC referrals and competency reviews that appear to be based on ethnicity.
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News Article
GMC launches 'hub' to tackle racism after recent criticism
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Following the blistering verdict last week of the independent review into the General Medical Council's (GMC) handling of the notorious 'laptop' case, which highlighted the "worrying trend" of ethnic minority doctors facing disproportionate regulatory action, the GMC has launched a new resource 'hub' to support doctors facing racism at work. A new dedicated area on the GMC website offers advice on how to address racism in the workplace, and sits alongside its existing dedicated whistleblowing webpage as the latest of 12 areas in an 'ethical hub' that brings together resources on how to apply GMC guidance in practice, focussing on areas doctors often query or find most challenging, and helping to address important ethical issues. Announcing the launch, the GMC said: "Tackling discrimination and inequality continues to be an urgent priority for health services." It added: "The GMC has committed to working with organisations to drive forward change, setting targets on tackling inequality." Its equality, diversity, and inclusion targets set last year aimed, inter alia, "to eliminate disproportionate complaints from employers about ethnic minority doctors, by 2026, and to eradicate disadvantage and discrimination in medical education and training by 2031". In March this year it published its first progress report, which showed that the gap between employer referral rates for ethnic minority doctors and international medical graduates, compared with white doctors, had "reduced slightly". Read full story Source: Medscape UK, 15 November 2022 -
News Article
Female CEOs say ambulance service culture ‘deeply wrong’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The only two female ambulance chief executives in the country have said there is something ‘deeply wrong’ with the culture in ambulance services. Helen Ray, the chief executive of the North East Ambulance Service Foundation Trust, said women working in the ambulance service “accept [inappropriate] banter, they accept sexualised behaviour from their male colleagues, and from patients, and they think it is okay”. She stressed “it is absolutely not [okay]” and said women must be given “safe spaces for talking and speaking up about that”. “There is something deeply wrong with the culture in the ambulance service”, she told the NHS Confederation’s Health and Care Women Leaders Network event on Tuesday. Siobhan Melia, interim chief executive of South East Coast Ambulance Service, said when she joined the trust four months ago on secondment from Sussex Community FT, it felt like she had “landed on a different planet”. Ms Melia said it was a culture “not like any other part of the NHS”. “The gender pay gap in my organisation is significant, so we see men in senior roles are taking it upon themselves to abuse their power, [with] both female students and female lower graded staff.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 November 2022 -
News Article
Confed chair: Trusts lacking senior diversity should not get top CQC ratings
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Trusts underperforming on leadership diversity should not be rated “good” or “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the NHS Confederation chair has told HSJ. Victor Adebowale said he did not understand how organisations can achieve the top CQC ratings if they do not demonstrate sufficient diversity at senior levels. Lord Adebowale was speaking to HSJ alongside Marie Gabriel, following Ms Gabriel being appointed last month to chair the new NHS Race and Health Observatory, which is being hosted by the confederation. The influential peer’s comments also follow the new People Plan tightened criteria around equality, diversity and inclusion in the “well-led” aspect of the care quality regulator’s inspections. He said: “I struggle to see [how] any NHS trust that performs badly, [on] racial equality and leadership, can be considered to be good and outstanding. I don’t get it. “It seems to me there is enough regulation to take into account the requirement to lead all the people, all the time. But, obviously, if you’re not, then you shouldn’t be [getting] slaps on the back, and [be rated] outstanding or good in anything else.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 28 August 2020 -
News Article
The medical school trying to become anti-racist
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A major British medical school is leading the drive to eliminate what it calls "inherent racism" in the way doctors are trained in the UK. The University of Bristol Medical School says urgent action is needed to examine why teaching predominantly focuses on how illnesses affect white people above all other sections of the population. It comes after students pushed for reform, saying gaps in their training left them ill-prepared to treat ethnic minority patients – potentially compromising patient safety. Hundreds of other UK medical students have signed petitions demanding teaching that better reflects the diversity of the country. The Medical School Council (led by the heads of UK medical schools) and the regulator, the General Medical Council, say they are putting plans in place to improve the situation. A number of diseases manifest differently depending on skin tone, but too little attention is given to this in training, according to Dr Joseph Hartland, who is helping to lead changes at the University of Bristol Medical School. "Historically medical education was designed and written by white middle-class men, and so there is an inherent racism in medicine that means it exists to serve white patients above all others," he said . "When patients are short of breath, for example, students are often taught to look out for a constellation of signs – including a blue tinge to the lips or fingertips – to help judge how severely ill someone is, but these signs can look different on darker skin." "Essentially we are teaching students how to recognise a life-or-death clinical sign largely in white people, and not acknowledging these differences may be dangerous," said Dr Hartland. Read full story Source: BBC News, 17 August 2020 -
News Article
New A&E models may increase 'discrimination’ against some patients
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The development of separate emergency units to help acute trusts manage demand during the covid pandemic may risk increasing “discrimination” against mental health patients, a royal college has warned. In a report shared with HSJ, the Royal College of Psychiatrists said separate emergency assessment units being set up by mental health trusts offered a calmer environment for mental health patients and reduced pressure on emergency departments. But the report, based on 54 survey responses from liaison psychiatry teams, also warned there was a “potential to increase the stigmatisation of mental illness by emergency department staff”. It added: “Within a general hospital there is a risk that prejudicial attitudes amongst staff translate into discriminatory behaviour towards patients. The provision of a separate mental health emergency assessment facility on another site may reinforce the erroneous view that the assessment and management of mental health problems is not a role for an emergency department.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 11 August 2020 -
News Article
‘White leaders under pressure’ to prove black lives matter
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Incoming Health Education England chief executive Navina Evans said the momentum created by the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement meant there was now increased “pressure on white leaders” to act on racism and discrimination in the service. Dr Evans praised a letter written by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust chief executive Roisin Fallon-Williams, in which she admitted to being “culpable” and “complicit” in failing to fully understand the inequality and discrimination faced by people with black, Asian or other minority ethnic backgrounds. “That was great to see, and as you can see from the reactions to her letter people were really, really pleased to have it acknowledged,” she said. However, Dr Evans added: “As well as that [acknowledgement] there needs to be action”. Read full story Source: HSJ, 22 June 2020 -
News Article
Racism 'could play a part in BAME covid deaths'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Factors such as racism and social inequality may have contributed to increased risks of black, Asian and minority communities catching and dying from COVID-19, a leaked report says. Historic racism may mean that people are less likely to seek care or to demand better personal protective equipment, says the Public Health England (PHE) draft, seen by the BBC. Other possible factors include risks linked to occupation and inequalities in conditions such as diabetes may increase disease severity. The report, the second by PHE on the subject, pointed to racism and discrimination as a root cause affecting health and the risk of both exposure to the virus and becoming seriously ill. It said stakeholders expressed "deep dismay, anger, loss and fear in their communities" as data emerged suggesting COVID-19 was "exacerbating existing inequalities". And it found "historic racism and poorer experiences of healthcare or at work" meant individuals in BAME groups were less likely to seek care when needed or to speak up when they had concerns about personal protective equipment or risk. The report concluded: "The unequal impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities may be explained by a number of factors ranging from social and economic inequalities, racism, discrimination and stigma, occupational risk, inequalities in the prevalence of conditions that increase the severity of disease including obesity, diabetes, hypertension and asthma." Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 June 2020 -
News ArticleOne in three trainee doctors in Australia have experienced or witnessed bullying, harassment or discrimination in the past 12 months, but just a third have reported it. That's according to a national survey of almost 10,000 trainee doctors released today by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). The results of the survey, co-developed by the Medical Board of Australia (MBA), send a "loud message" about bullying and harassment to those in the medical profession, said MBA chair Anne Tonkin. "It is incumbent on all of us to heed it," Dr Tonkin said. "We must do this if we are serious about improving the culture of medicine." "Bullying, harassment and discrimination are not good for patient safety, constructive learning or the culture of medicine," Dr Tonkin continued. "We must all redouble our efforts to strengthen professional behaviour and deal effectively with unacceptable behaviour." Read full story Source: ABC News, 10 February 2020
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Content ArticleWhen people already negatively affected by unfavourable social determinants of health seek care, healthcare itself may make health inequalities worse, rather than tackling them. This is seen in certain demographic groups experiencing disproportionate levels of harm. This article in The BMJ argues that focusing on patient safety in terms of specific health inequalities will help make healthcare more equally safe. It looks at interpersonal and structural factors that shape care experiences for people from marginalised backgrounds, including poor communication, basing treatment on models built around majority norms and healthcare worker bias. It highlights the importance of having a clear line of accountability for unequal harms so that individuals and organisations are given responsibility for taking action to overcome issues.
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Content ArticleCore20PLUS5 is NHS England's national approach to reducing healthcare inequalities. In this blog, Paul Gavin, Deputy Director of the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme, reflects on learnings from a recent online survey about Core20PLUS5 in which healthcare professionals and voluntary sector organisations shared their views on the approach. NHS England have also produced an infographic summarising the survey results.
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Content ArticleCatherine Villanueva Gardner, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, looks at the material effects on women with Long Covid.
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Content Article
Misogyny is a safety issue: a blog by Saira Sundar
SairaS posted an article in Women's health
In this opinion piece, hub topic lead Saira Sundar looks at the culture of misogyny we have inherited in the medical profession, particularly in the obstetrics and gynaecology area of medicine. We hear time and time again women speaking up about being mistreated and/or disbelieved by medical professionals, resulting in delays in diagnosis and serious harm. However, there is a real change being forced by women themselves, with the public increasingly questioning and insisting on improvement and the right to be heard. -
Content ArticleEmployers have a duty of care to support doctors when they are faced with an abusive patient or their guardians/relatives. This guidance from the British Medical Association (BMA) gives background information and steps that all employers and healthcare workers should take when discrimination against a healthcare worker occurs.
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Content ArticleAccess to healthcare is a basic right, but refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK often face barriers to accessing health services. The Refugee Council has released this collection of guides and films for health professionals, decision-makers and NGOs to address health inequalities experienced by refugees and people seeking asylum.
