NHS staff are having to deal with increased racism from patients – including patients refusing to be treated by non-white staff members and referring to a healthcare worker as “a monkey” – according to the Society of Radiographers.
Healthcare workers say that such incidents have increased noticeably over the last 18 months, reflecting increasingly hostile public attitudes to race, diversity and immigration, as well as nationalist movements such as Operation Raise the Colours.
The SoR is therefore placing renewed focus on holding NHS trusts accountable for incidents of racism, so that they not only record the incident, but also monitor how it is dealt with and work with trade unions as necessary.
Experiences of racism at work
The Society of Radiographers surveyed members about their experiences of racism at work. One respondent said: “Some patients always complain because of the colour of skin of people attending them.” Another spoke of “Patients not acknowledging you but directing questions to your junior.”
Some cases were even more overt. One respondent spoke of: “Patients describing healthcare staff as dirty foreigners,” and another said: “I have witnessed a colleague being called a monkey by a patient.”
Paul Awah, a Bedfordshire-based Diagnostic Radiographer originally from Nigeria, says: “Patients claim not to hear what I’m saying, or say they can’t understand me. English is the only language I speak, and I believe I’m clear enough when I’m speaking to patients.
“It’s happened to me on two different occasions, when the patient is looking at me quite clearly in terms of my skin colour.”
Mr Awah is skilled at cannulating patients, and colleagues will often call on him to help with particularly awkward cannulations. On three separate occasions, patients have then said to him, “Are you sure you’ve done this before?”
“I was stunned,” says Mr Awah. “They’re saying, ‘If somebody who’s Caucasian has tried and failed, how dare you bring a Black man now?’ On what basis do they think I’m unable to access their veins?”
'It's become more prevalent'
A sonographer of Asian descent working in the Midlands says that several times, while she’s been conducting a scan, the patient has commented along the lines of, “This country isn’t the same, with all those people coming over here, taking our jobs.”
And, in the sonographer’s department, a white man refused to let a sonographer of colour scan his pregnant wife, saying: “I don’t want anyone from any ethnic background touching my woman.” On another occasion, a patient arriving for a chest X-ray refused to let a Black radiographer conduct the X-ray, stating that “Black people frighten me.”
And a white British Therapeutic Radiographer, working in Yorkshire, says that a patient in her department made racist comments to multiple members of staff. His comments included telling a radiographer he couldn’t understand what she was saying. The radiographer in question has a mild Yorkshire accent, but was wearing a headscarf. On another occasion, he made an inappropriate joke about a different radiographer’s headscarf.
The Therapeutic Radiographer says: “When I spoke to him, he said the staff here didn’t have the right diction. I told him we don’t choose our radiographers by how they speak – we choose them based on skill.
“What upset me the most is it hadn’t been reported to me – I just happened to hear the staff members talking through it. I felt it had happened to them so much that they just accepted it as something they had to put up with.”
Members tell the SoR that such incidents have increased significantly in the last 18 months, with the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric. “It’s become more prevalent – it’s in the media and certain political parties and TV channels,” says the sonographer in the Midlands. “So people are openly expressing their views.”
Mr Awah agrees that racism has increased in recent months. “It’s definitely got worse – people are more expressive now,” he says. “What used to be something people wouldn’t say – now the rhetoric has changed. Immigrants are blamed for the cost of living, energy bills, the worsening situation in the country, and people feel it’s okay to say it.
“Some of us get used to that kind of stigmatisation and subtle racism. It’s actually quite frustrating, to be honest. I came here to support the NHS, and I’m making vital contributions, working very, very hard because we’re not entitled to any public funds. Working that hard and then being seen as a parasite and part of the problem with this country is really not right at all.”
'Unconscionable and unacceptable'
Dean Rogers, executive director of industrial strategy and member relations, says that no NHS employee should have to put up with racism in the workplace. “The rise in incidents of racism over the last year and a half is unconscionable and unacceptable – and it's a poor reflection on us as a society," he says.
"The NHS has a diverse workforce – which is one of its strengths. We are clear: discrimination, harassment, racism, bullying or intimidation – whether expressed verbally or in behaviour – is unacceptable and has no place in the NHS.”
The SoR has been working with other healthcare unions to create new NHS staff standards, published this month, which hold trusts to account for incidents of racism. The SoR is now calling for the NHS to record incidents of racism and monitor how they are dealt with, working with trade-union partners to ensure this is done effectively. There are currently no guidelines for what should be done once an incident of racism is recorded.
Approximately 21 per cent of the NHS workforce are non-British nationals, and around one in four radiographers who are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council trained overseas. The SoR therefore wants to see a more developed programme for inducting, orientating and integrating new staff, whether they have moved nationally or internationally.
In addition, the SoR will provide training for its reps, so that they can uphold the new staff standards with confidence. “Racist behaviours undermine patient care and go against our shared values of integrity, equity, courtesy and openness,” says Mr Rogers.
“We want commitment and clear accountability when it comes to addressing anything that makes the NHS an unsafe environment in which to work. Together, we want to ensure that the NHS is safe, inclusive and proud of the diversity that makes us stronger.”