Racism where you would least expect it... among the healers
Inquiry by the British Medical Association has found that 76 per cent of doctors questioned had experienced racism
What you need to know:
- An extensive inquiry by the British Medical Association has found that 76 per cent of doctors questioned had experienced racism
- One doctor said a patient insulted him because of his turban and another refused to be seen by him because his name did not sound British.
If there is one place you might guess would be largely free of racism in the UK, it is among the medics of the National Health Service, many of whom are highly educated.
Alas, an extensive inquiry by the British Medical Association has found that 76 per cent of doctors questioned had experienced racism and 60 per cent say it affected their mental health.
Shockingly, 71 per cent of victims did not feel they could report the abuse and 58 per cent of those who did say they experienced a backlash. Nine per cent of doctors have quit their jobs because of racism at work.
Since some 40 per cent of NHS doctors are from ethnic backgrounds, it is clear the Health Service would collapse without them.
Yet black and Asian doctors have faced alarming levels of unfair treatment, often overlooked for promotion or forced to change their speciality.
One doctor said a patient insulted him because of his turban and another refused to be seen by him because his name did not sound British.
Bullied and harassed
“My supervisor did not wish to discuss that incident with me and I was met mostly by silence,” the Asian doctor said.
Trainee surgeon Dr Rachael Harlow comes from a family of black medics, including her grandfather, mother and aunt.
She said, “My aunt suffered terribly in her job. She was bullied and harassed and not supported by her colleagues and in the end, she took her own life.”
Dr Harlow’s own experience included the persistent failure of a hospital to give her a scrub cap that fitted over her hair; when she fashioned her own, colleagues laughed at her.
She said for brown and black medics, “It’s not OK to just be okay, you have to be exceptional in your job to get by.”
BMA chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said one in five doctors have left the NHS or say they are considering doing so because they can’t cope with the racism.
“This means potentially losing tens of thousands of doctors in the coming years when we have the biggest backlog of care ever.”
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Office workers beware! Sitting for eight hours a day gives you a 20 per cent higher risk of heart disease or early death, according to a study by Canadian and Chinese scientists.
Researchers determined that inactivity was the cause of 8.8 per cent of deaths, close to the 10.6 per cent caused by smoking.
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The war in Ukraine may have nothing to do with Africa, but it is hurting the continent nevertheless.
More than 40 per cent of wheat consumed by African nations usually comes from Russia and Ukraine.
But Ukraine’s ports in the Black Sea have been blocked for exports by Russia.
“Failure to open these ports will result in famine,” said the UN’s crisis coordinator, Amin Awad.
He said a grain shortage could affect 1.4 billion people and trigger mass migration.
The war has exacerbated existing shortages in Africa caused by bad harvests.
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They call it sledging and now that the cricket season is back, the sledgers will be sharpening their wits.
Sledging is the practice of players delivering insults to their opponents, quite often batsman to bowler or bowler to batsman.
The remarks can be funny, fiery, lame or downright offensive; ripostes can be even better.
All the cricket-playing nations indulge – Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean teams, and in Europe, England and Ireland. The Aussies are regarded as the top sledgers but they don’t win every slanging match.
The hefty Aussie bowler Shane Warne told South African Daryll Cullnan he had been waiting two years for another chance to humiliate him.
To that, Cullinan replied: “Looks like you spent it eating.”
Viv Richards, West Indies captain, kept missing deliveries from Greg Thomas, a Welshman who played for England, prompting the bowler to sneer, “It’s red, it’s round, now hit it!”
Next ball, Richards hit out of the ground, and said, “You know what it looks like, now go and get it.”
Aussie Mark Waugh asked Englishman James Ormond, “What are you doing here? You’re not good enough to play for England.”
Ormond replied, “Maybe not, but at least I’m the best player in my family” – a reference to Mark’s brother Steve, an Australian captain and legend.
