Formal complaint made about me because I am housing a refugee who may or may not carry diseases

[Jynxed]

Please help me handle this as I am feeling very upset.

For a couple of years I have had occasional guests to stay under the Homes for Refugees scheme. This is where asylum seekers are awarded Right to Remain but the flip side of this is that they have to leave home office accommodation almost immediately, with no money and no support.

Last week I was asked to take in a young man who would be made homeless within 2 days and he arrived this weekend. He is a doctor and it came out in conversation that he had been exposed to TB through his work, had some bacteria markers, and was now receiving monitoring and treatment in the UK to treat this.

I have come across this before, but did a little research to check that there was no risk to my family. I was satisfied that latent TB is not a live disease, and treatment prevents it from developing, so in effect my guest did not have the disease, could not spread it, and was receiving treatment to ensure it could not develop.

I have a friend at work who helps me with translation and explaining strange British customs when needed, as she speaks a couple of languages common in the refugee community. I was telling her about my guest’s very early x/ray the next morning and about how to direct him.

Another colleague overheard and flipped her
lid. Lots of horrible comments about “these people coming over here and bringing their diseases “ and how I had put the whole office at risk without any consideration, and she was reporting me to the Director. I tried to explain that latent TB is not TB and of course I would not put my family at risk if there was any concern. She carried on shouting at me really aggressively, and made lots of remarks which I regard as pretty racist. She has submitted her complaint and I have been called to write a statement.

I felt really upset about it and would welcome any help to both support the fact that there is no risk, and that I have not broken any occupational health type rules. What do I say in my defence?!
Thanks for any help you can offer.

No, but it is racist to talk about how migrants bring in diseases and that there are parts of our city where you can’t go for fear of catching something from “these people”. As numerous people have said upthread TB is already established in this country and circulates amongst the indigenous population.

@Itawapuddytat Sorry you had to go through this and I hope you are okay now.

@Zebedee999 - just out of interest, where do you work?

OP well done on you and whoever else made a complaint. Don’t think of it as getting hauled up in front of a director.

You have a chance to speak your mind and challenge potential injustice.

I would consider calling ACAS - Google their number and opening hours. They can give free advice at all stages of the grievance processes.

Why is it racist to state that migrants bring in diseases? It is a fact! 70% of TB, malaria, HIV etc were in people born outside the UK! Why are facts racist?

Same with many diseases long eradicated in the UK have now reappeared.

It is beyond me why we have to lie and pretend this isn't the case in case Starmer's Stasi imprison us for made up racism charges.

You would have to beyond working age to remember that. That was my mother's generation and she would have been 100 this year.

On the other hand, in the 70s, I had to have an x-ray before becoming a teacher. It was routine and didn't involve the threat of being 'taken away'. I don't know when that stopped being a requirement.

TB has never been eradicated in this country. Every year it’s on the news about people protesting against badgers culls which are done to reduce the incidence of TB amongst cattle in the UK.
It’s sadly, always been prevalent amongst the homeless population (especially in Glasgow.
There’s so much more I could add, but if you don’t even know the basics I don’t think there’s any need to expand.
Perhaps do some background reading. A quick google would help you.

Read this for starters
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tuberculosis-in-england-2024-report/tuberculosis-incidence-and-epidemiology-england-2023#:~:text=England%20remained%20a%20low%20TB,WHO%20elimination%20target%20of%202035.

Unless she's medically trained, she has no idea what she's talking about.

Or this…
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tuberculosis-cases-in-england-hit-lowest-ever-levels

@CaptainMyCaptain i don’t remember her being sent away, but they used to talk about it and my dad had anxiety around chesty coughs- called them graveyard coughs and used to tell me off about it 🤣
And my mother used to stick us out in the fresh air in our pram to make sure we never needed to be sent away…
And the labels were still in the library books

Type the key parts of your OP into chat gpt and ask it to write a statement in a formal tone, backed up with facts and links to the TB risk.

Does your colleague not know that nearly everyone in the U.K. is vaccinated against TB ?

People carry diseases, and travel brings people in contact with each other. Covid was spread by business and vacation travel, for example. Refugees are more likely to be ill because by definition they have often been without decent healthcare and not had the benefit of vaccination programmes. Hence there is a scanning, treatment and monitoring programme for new arrivals. What is racist is the implication you and my bigoted colleague express is that somehow this makes migrants dirty and dangerous rather than disadvantaged and impoverished.

Please explain this Starmer Stasi you have mentioned twice? I am unaware of a new secret police force and I know nothing of threats to imprison people for made up charges. I have however seen TV footage of people behaving very violently whipped up by maliciously spread rumours on social media designed to blame migrants for almost every ill going.

100% this. And ask them what they intend to do about the colleague.

Not for 20 years routinely.

This thread is making me angry. I've name changed to reply.

I became very sick after seeing a patient (immigrant, eastern European, alcohol dependent, non compliant with meds) he had TB (later disclosed) I caught it. I wound up in ITU with cavitations in my lungs. Thank god I was given very aggressive and speedy treatment and made a miracle recovery after a few months. It's left me very very cautious though of what and who I'm exposed to.

There is a very large community of low level working an non working immigrants where I live and the cases of TB have gone up to a record level. Many of this community have active TB (there are also high levels of alcoholism within that community and HIV which of course lowers immunity and increases susceptibility to TB)

So forgive me if I'm not going to pile on by calling that person you mentioned a "racist". I agree with her concerns. This is just another example of #bekindbe naive . all for the sake of a good old virtue signal.

I think your colleague is right with her caution.

Also, to add, I was vaccinated as a child. Childhood vaccinations can become ineffective after decades (I'm proof of that )

Malaria isn't passed from person to person, so that's just a silly example.

As for your last sentence... 🙄

Thankyou so much for Saying this 🙏 I was really disheartened to read the be kind naive sentiment is still very much alive and well just so as nobody looks 'racist.

You're sincerely from someone who was once, despite my job in healthcare, very naive and probably part of the be kind brigade, until I caught it and almost died. But according to this thread, let's ignore facts and risks and let TB spread like wild fire back in the UK again. Anyone who doesn't think this is happening needs to work in healthcare or do some googling.

Government figures show that 70% of TB, malaria, HIV etc cases in the UK are in people born outside the UK!
I have no idea why you wish to dispute facts and keep screaming racism. Your colleague is perhaps more aware of the facts than you are that migrants bring a higher proportion of diseases into the country than those born here.
There are reasons for that but to say it's racist and ignore facts just means issues do not get dealt with. leave your lala land and learn some facts.

I'm also staggered by your naiveté.

Drs don't usually access the UK via the 'refugee' route. Sure he's a DR?

Patients with latent TB (this will be a heck of a lot of us ) if not most- don't receive check ups and anti-tb medications. Doesn't happen.

But he'd know that as a Dr....

But carry on #bekind.

It's not racist to raise concerns about a very serious and very infectious disease.

Thankyou for keeping this staggeringly naive thread in the real world.

All this absurdly insulting ignorance on here, all in the name of 'lets not be seen to be racist' (guess being racist includes pointing out facts now )

As someone who has shared my experience here who never thought it would happen to me, I'm glad to see some facts and reality injected into this thread.

Meh, everyone carries diseases abroad, how does colleague think we got Covid. Or how we gave measles to Americans.

Diseases use humans as their transport. All colours & passports useful.

A lot of people are still terrified of TB cos it often kills you - only 30 years ago I was barred from seeing DGM for a year cos they thought she had it. She’s white.

In all fairness to colleague, she might be neurotic about it - the NHS are rightly nervous.

TB has mostly vanished in UK thanks to vaccines but homelessness and immigration keep it bubbling about. New cases of HIV in London are mostly imported, again fixable. I don’t know what diseases we export but COVID’s a start.

Christ the ignorance on here. We are doomed.

Again, unless we have immigrant anopheles mosquitoes (which would die pretty much instantly) malaria is not a disease that anyone in the UK needs to worry about. It is not spread person to person
And as you're so ignorant on this, I don't exactly trust your stats.