Racism in Healthcare
Racism in healthcare has two sides- racism coming from patients and racism from colleagues. Unfortunately, coming from a BAME background and working in healthcare, you experience both sides.
My first job out of university in 2019 was as an NHS 111 Health Advisor for London Ambulance Service. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I’ve always wanted to work in healthcare and it felt like the very first step. In the first few days of training, the trainer came over to check how my partner and I were progressing in our exercise and tugged my braids. This wouldn’t be the first time he would do something like this. He also told me that my afro was ‘wild’ and that it wasn’t very suitable for work. Things finally came to a head when my black female trainee confided in me that he had accused her of being arrested and serving jail time. I encouraged her to report it and supported her in doing so.
On a particular occasion when our system was down, I had a patient who was upset by my pace and felt I wasn’t being helpful enough. As I began to assess him, his anger began to boil over. “I don’t know, I’m in pain.” Then he began to yell “F***k you, I know you’re black, you f*****g black b***h” and hung up. I reported it through all the proper channels but it was never acknowledged and never followed up. This incident happened in 2020 and I still haven’t heard anything. However, when the BLM movement gained traction in summer last year, there was a department wide email reminding us to report all racial abuse through the proper channels so that all they could be passed on to the police. I was bothered about this for a while. This email felt like a way to protect themselves from criticism when in reality, they hadn’t taken any of those steps in my situation. As an employee, you want to feel valued by the organisation you spend endless hours with, especially during the pandemic.
There was also a patient that used to call regularly and would never give his details. He clearly had some mental health issues, but his sole reason for calling would be to express his disgust at how the ‘Blacks and Muslims’ were destroying the country then would hang up. He would call several times a day.
I had a good rapport with majority of people I worked with. In my experience, my place of work was usually a warm place, my colleagues were pretty friendly and management were mostly supportive. But it only takes one person to ruin a good experience.
During my night shifts, one particular colleague used to regularly ask me “Is your hair real?” “I don’t think your hair is real”. He would always ask this in a raised voice because our work stations weren’t close, but I believe a part of it was to attract attention for maximum embarrassment.I used to dread doing night shifts because of him and felt really self-conscious about my hair. When BLM started gaining traction, a colleague of mine used to make jokes about it. It was at this point that I began to question how important it was to me to even work in healthcare. If this was a reflection of what my career would be as a paramedic, it was beginning to feel like it wasn’t worth it. I even had a conversation with a nurse clinical lead who had heard that I was leaving to study Paramedic Science. She felt certain that it wasn’t a good decision. With BAME backgrounds being so underrepresented, she was concerned that I would never progress in my chosen field. All I can do is hope that my hard work will eventually speak for itself.
These experiences don’t even include the ones I had as a St John volunteer between the ages of 17-18 or the experiences I’ve had since starting my course. I’m certain that other healthcare students and staff have had similar experiences (if not worse). It’s not enough to make statements about being a supporter of progress, it’s about doing the work. That is what makes an ally. The healthcare sector, especially the NHS, needs to do much better.