Statement in response to Labour Party’s plans for a ‘mission-driven’ Race Equality Act
Several commitments have been announced today around transforming the Race Equality Act including:
Results shown below
Several commitments have been announced today around transforming the Race Equality Act including:
Better care, training and anti-racist policies could significantly increase workforce numbers and productivity in the NHS, improve patient experience, and save millions of pounds spent annually on addressing racism claims brought by staff, clinicians and patients, according to a panel of health and race experts speaking at the Confed Expo conference today, 15 June.
“The latest Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) data report reiterates the fact that whilst the NHS is diverse, it’s not always inclusive. We welcome the increase in the overall number of Black, Asian and ethnic minority staff joining the NHS workforce, including the slight rise at board level, but there still remains unacceptable levels of discrimination, bullying, harassment and barriers to progression for significant proportions of our diverse staff.
Barriers to treatment, support and emergency healthcare faced by patients experiencing acute painful sickle cell episodes will be investigated by the NHS Race and Health Observatory.
Generic collective terms such as ‘BAME’, ‘BME’ and ‘Ethnic Minority’ are not representative or universally popular, according to the latest results of a consultation led by the NHS Race and Health Observatory.
Responding to today’s Government announcement on DNA testing and research, Dr Veline L’Esperance, Senior Clinical Advisor to the Observatory, said:
My own interest in health and ethnicity was sparked only a few years ago, not because of my NHS role, but due to a life-transforming experience taking part in the BBC1 documentary ‘My Family, Partition & Me’ in 2017.
For most of us, agency is something that, until recently, was easy to take for granted. In normal life, we make hundreds of choices every day and feel, for the most part, that decisions regarding our life and our health are ours to make. In other words, we feel free.
Tests that indicate the health of newborns, moments after birth, are limited and not fit-for-purpose for Black, Asian and ethnic minority babies, and need immediate revision according to the NHS Race and Health Observatory.
Dr Habib Naqvi, the director in charge of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, is calling on everybody, and particularly people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to learn CPR skills this Restart A Heart Day, October 16.