It was announced on the 30th July that a major £2.1m research study has been launched to investigate why UK health workers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19. In this episode of The Turning Point: In conversation with…, I talk to my sister Olympia Amoo who is a NHS worker about what she thinks racism looks like within the NHS.
To both of us, the NHS is the best healthcare system in the world. As someone with a life-threatening health condition, Olympia receives the gold standard of treatment but we understand that this isn’t the case for everyone. The BAME community continues to be plagued by COVID-19 and black women are five times more likely to die in childbirth compared to white mothers.
We share some of our own personal experiences, and highlight the “small things” that could have resulted in negligence. Is this due to racism? We’re not sure but there is no denying that the issues faced by black people within the NHS truly exist. The black community have different outcomes, receive less empathy, genetic dispositions are overlooked, amongst many other things.
Olympia provides some real nuggets and key resources for listeners to take away. Some are listed below:
- How to complain about a NHS service or incident
- Familiarise yourself with the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS)
- If you don’t believe your GP has listened to you, ensure you tell them to add the details of your conversation to your notes to ensure that they are held to account if you fall more unwell from a preventable illness
- Educate yourself on the NHS’ Clinical Governance framework
- Keep up to date with Malone Mukwende the black Healthcare Assistant who is leading on the production of the new health book ‘Mind the Gap: a handbook of clinical signs on black and brown skin’
- NHS workforce ethnicity stats
Don’t miss this important episode!
To watch the video version on YouTube, click here.
Words from a Black Woman 