Published 11 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2349
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2349

News

Conference calls for sanctions and penalties to stamp out "institutional racism" in NHS

Caroline White

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Regulators need to get tough on an "institutionally racist NHS" by imposing sanctions and penalties on trusts that fail to promote race equality for staff and patients and do not meet their statutory duties, the first national NHS black and minority ethnic conference has concluded.

A succession of damning reports in recent years, the most recent of which was published in April by the former health service regulator the Healthcare Commission, have all indicated that the NHS is dragging its feet on race equality (BMJ 2009;338:b1357, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1357).

In a series of on the spot electronic votes, almost nine out of 10 (89%) delegates agreed that experience of racial discrimination contributes to the well documented poorer health outcomes of black people and people with minority ethnic backgrounds.

They singled out institutional racism (37%) and a lack of commitment to the matter by senior managers (27%) as the principal . . . [Full text of this article]


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Trusts are making slow progress in promoting race equality, says Healthcare Commission
Caroline White
BMJ 2009 338: b1357. [Extract] [Full Text]

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