Racism and rainbow laces in the NHS

[lanadelgrey]

Makes me furious hearing about the racism being reported in the news but all that effort going into lanyards, pronoun badges and more.
The obvious and awful issue being overlooked or possibly papered over by the rainbow stripes.
My DD is named after a doctor who played an important role in her dad’s life: non-white, non-UK so never made it to consultant but wonderful and brilliant person

It infuriates me when so many resources are being poured into changing simple languages like "women" to "people who have cervixes" - terminology that won't be understood by some women with English as a second language, or limited reading skills. Inclusivity nowadays includes gender and that's it. Nobody cares about improving outcomes for black/Asian, working class and disabled people. The stonewall lobby has done so much damage, and our public institutions have paid them for the privilege.

In this and so many other arenas (publishing, the arts, schools etc), it’s struck me that making “celebrating diversity” all about LGBT and especially the T, means that white middle-class people are predominantly the ones being celebrated and rewarded for their “diversity”, and once you’ve plastered everything with rainbow flags and ticked the diversity box, you can forget about your responsibilities to the other “diverse” groups.

Totally. It's just a new way to include straight, white men. Which is why it has such huge support and makes such strides in such little time.

I suspect it allows the NHS to ignore all the medical scandals in relation to maternity care - they can keep busy putting rainbows everywhere rather than solving the dangerous situation that kills and maims so many women - especially Black women.

It's as though there isn't millions of people on waiting lists if they are spending all this time and money on this nonsense.

Everything nowadays is style over substance - corporate virtue signalling woke wankery. Management prefer spending time and money on this crap rather than care about patients or staff.

I was going to quote a PP but every one of these is worth quoting. Dead right. And we (through our tax and NI) pay Stonewall to undermine our rights.

Diversity and inclusion only means for one group now.

Health providers should be working really hard for people with disabilities especially.

Sign language, proper disability access, language barriers. All creat barriers but a bit of glitter and a rainbow are much easier and cheaper to do.

This
My brother is profoundly disabled and access to health care for him is dreadful.

I've been thinking a lot about diversity in relation to physical, mental and learning disabilities.

This affects a greater number of the population (not least because a disability affects those around you more, who you want to fuck only affects you) it is a disgrace how diversity only means one thing now.

Can you give examples of racism please in the NHS?

The maternity statistics for black and Asian women are an absolute disgrace; sorting this should be a national priority. Women and their babies are being FAILED by medical staff on a daily basis, but let's worry about pronouns eh.

I am so glad I am retired. I agree with you OP. I did loads of work on the impact of race and ethnicity on outcomes in women's health, particularly in obstetrics. That was nearly 20 years ago now. It is really hard to get the message out if there is no money and no political will.
Rainbow lanyards and laces require no intelligent input at all.

Very easy to find, these links focus on racism against those working in the nhs

www.england.nhs.uk/midlands/wrei/tackling-racism-and-other-types-of-discrimination/

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/racism-embedded-in-nhs-organisational-culture-and-norms-prevents-progress-on-healthcare-staff-inequities

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/nhs-losing-ethnic-minority-doctors-racism-b2101128.html

www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/racism-an-issue-in-nhs-finds-survey

News today about how Black and Asian medical staff suffer racism - BMA report found 76% had experienced racism at work. Percentage intake of non white doctors does not translate into similar percent reaching consultant level.

Collection of discussions of NHS and racism in the workforce and work practices.

blogs.bmj.com/bmjleader/category/roger-kline-actions-to-tackle-nhs-workforce-race-discrimination/

I heard a doctor being interviewed on the radio this morning. It's disgusting how little effort the nhs puts into fixing this very really problem and pours scarce funds into rainbow washing instead

It fascainates me how good a group of largely middle class people with an education are at telling g us that they are the most marginalised.

for a vulnerable group they sure are good at getting everything they want.

people with learning disabilities die because they can’t access basic care. No one had a lanyard for them.

Couldn’t agree more

We were discussing this this morning when it was on the radio. So much money spent on nonsense and the whole stonewall points scoring for suppliers.

who is running the nhs - it’s on its knees and we are supposed to be a wealthy country.

Yes, that was on mentioned on Radio 4 this morning too, as well as the racism. (The statistics programme More or Less looking at the claim by Jeremy Hunt that maternity services spend as much on maternity litigation claims as they do on wages).

The NHS has a particularly un-diverse notion of what diversity actually is. It's supposed to be win-win. Employees of any and all the protected characteristics get treated fairly, and employers get the diverse viewpoints and input that comes with true diversity - saving them from the mistakes of groupthink. Instead we get lanyards and - yes, groupthink.

(The statistics programme More or Less looking at the claim by Jeremy Hunt that maternity services spend as much on maternity litigation claims as they do on wages).

It will be interesting to see the specifics of that but I know there are estimates of extraordinary costs.

The NHS paid £2.4bn (€2.8bn; $3.1bn) in clinical negligence claims in 2018-19, according to NHS Resolution (formerly the NHS Litigation Authority).1 This sum equates to about 2% of the entire budget for the NHS in England (roughly £115bn). But even these startling figures do not provide the full picture, since NHS Resolution also has to account for claims likely to be received in the future. Now standing at £83.4bn, the amount “set aside” for such claims is among the most substantial public sector financial liabilities faced by the UK government,2 second only to nuclear decommissioning (£131bn).3

www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m552

I'd call the repeated failure to tackle with the fact that Black women are statistically four times more likely to die during childbirth than white women in the UK very clear evidence of entrenched racism.

The appointment of so many self interested activists to Diversity & Inclusion posts in the NHS who self indulgently promote their narrow niche agenda is clear evidence of who is valued and prioritised by the NHS.

www.openaccessgovernment.org/childbirth-black-women-uk/117437/

I meant to quote a different paragraph about the costs of litigation around maternity care and neonatal outcomes. I've no idea where this comes out wrt the relative costs of maternity care.

The Public Accounts Committee has identified that a small number of high value claims, mostly related to maternity care, is a major contributor to these costs.4 Maternity accounted for 50% of the total value of claims received by NHS Resolution in 2018-19, though it represented only 10% of the total number of claims.1 The high cost of these claims arises because injury at birth (including brain injury) can have catastrophic effects over a lifetime.5

www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m552

I agree entirely with the previous posters. All this 'inclusion' shit only goes one way. Our family's experience of having a disabled person in hospital was appalling. The worst comment we had,from a HCP, was that 'they' didn't feel pain! What she meant was that people with Downs Syndrome didn't feel pain. I couldn't believe that anyone working in a hospital could be so ignorant and actually announce that ignorance. My relative didn't even have DS,which was evident by using ones eyes and reading his notes.
This was about 16 years ago, so not exactly the dark ages.