"We are here to be seen and why you should take notice" | #TeamBartsHealth blogs

• In this blog, St Bartholomew's BAME network co-leads Celina Mfuko and Prisca Duah reflect on the Black Lives Matter movement.
• They offer their thoughts on making the NHS the best place to work for BAME staff.

The recent #BlackLivesMatter movement  has made all of us stop and think.  

For some it may feel uncomfortable talking about racism as they do not want to cause offence. However, with the current movement, now is the  time to have an open conversation in order to gain better insight into the experiences of BAME staff within the NHS. We can only tackle racism together. 

We all have an ethnicity – brown, black or white – so it is important that we all discuss ethnicity in a way that is appropriate, inclusive and sensitive. The emphasis is for people to accept that we are equal and have capability to thrive, lead and live our lives to the highest possible potential. 

The way we see our NHS system: putting things into perspective 

One in five people working for the NHS in England is from an ethnic minority background, however, these numbers are even higher when we look solely at doctors and nurses.  

We were brought up with a sense of belief that the world was equal and that we should be able to reach our full potential based on our continuous effort. However, personal experience within the NHS has told us something else and we have survived some painful moments by avoidance and endurance. 

This is also reflected in the huge inequality within our organisation, and within our society as well. The current interventions do not effectively work to tackle inequalities and more needs to be done. 

Some of the current challenges  faced by BAME staff are: 

• Being treated unfairly 

• Lack of opportunities for career growth 

• Limited influence at senior level 

• Undervalued and disempowered 

• Victimisations 

• Underrepresentation of BAME staff at senior levels 

• Biological weathering driven by the cumulative impact of repeated exposures to psychological, social and physical stressors in occupational and other environments and coping with these stressors. 

In addition to the above, we now know there is evidence of disproportionate mortality and morbidity amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people, including our NHS staff, who have contracted Covid-19. 

Our hope is that we can collectively overcome these challenges based on the fact that we all have shared purposes including our Barts Health values, visions and goals.  

It is the  ‘WHY’, not the ‘what’ or the ‘how’ for change.    

Our road to transformation does also requires: 

• Willingness 

• Commitment to this cause 

• How to collaboratively address this  wicked problem 

• Conversations about race and racism 

• Reflexivity 

“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King Jr  

Making the NHS the best place to work  

Empathy  and emotional commitment is crucial if we want to create a real culture of inclusion which will have meaningful effects to the lives of BAME staff. 

Commitment to the principles of ‘Ubuntu’, an African philosophy that places emphasis on 'being self through others'. This word relates to humanism and has been expressed as 'I am because of who we all are'.  

Leadership: do we need to redefine our principles? How can we ensure that our leaders are equipped with culture, policy and system change? 

What are the key themes for our leaders to focus on that will tackle systemic discrimination within our NHS organisations? 

This is a collective issue and we can only truly beat racism if we work through this together.  

Here are some ways in which we can tackle racism together on a daily basis:  

• Let’s educate ourselves on what racism is and what it looks like in our workplace. 

• Hear stories from our BAME colleagues, join us and listen to our trust-wide BAME meetings. 

• Speak up when you see racism, talk to your manager and email your local BAME leads. 

Racism thrives on misconceptions, There has been so many instances where a racist incident has been debated upon and been minimised to seem irrelevant (gaslighting). 

The only way we begin to tackle this is through a coordinated approach where BAME staff feel confident in raising issues and for allies to feel confident enough to recognise and speak up against racism.   

So let’s take action today! Collectively we can tackle racism, discrimination, bullying and forms of injustice suffered by the BAME community. 

Celina Mfuko and Prisca Duah 

#EqualityCantWait 

#BlackLivesMatter