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Government promises action on NHS’s ethnic pay gaps and health inequalities in England

BMJ 2022; 376 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o735 (Published 18 March 2022) Cite this as: BMJ 2022;376:o735
  1. Adrian O’Dowd
  1. London

The government has announced that it will commission research into the ethnic pay gap in the NHS in an attempt to close pay differences between staff of different ethnic backgrounds in England.

The move is one of 74 actions planned by the government to tackle racism in the UK and the NHS, set out in a report published on 17 March1 in response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ report last December.2 That report was heavily criticised by healthcare leaders at the time for finding “no evidence of systemic or institutional racism” in the UK.3

In its response the government has also promised to do more to tackle health inequalities, bias in medical equipment, and reduced life expectancy and poorer maternal outcomes among people from ethnic minority backgrounds, while holding healthcare providers to account for ethnic disparities in their workforce.

Healthcare leaders welcomed the various steps announced, but some remained disappointed …

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