Due to the history of racist practices towards Black and Brown health workers that have been further exposed by our experience of the pandemic, we demand a health service that is actively anti-racist:
We call upon the NHS to:
1. Implement a Zero tolerance to racism policy and practice.
2. Stop putting Black and Brown staff in danger of death and psychological harm.
3. Build a more compassionate NHS with respect and equity for Black and Brown workers.
4. Remove whiteness as the benchmark in training and organisational culture
5. Build an NHS with equality at the core of health provision for all ethnicities.
6. Create clear and real consequences for racist actions, including dismissal, legal action and referral to regulatory bodies.
7. Create a fair and transparent recruitment process, including all internal opportunities.
8. End the exploitation of Black and Brown workers - delegate work equitably.
We call upon Universities and Practice learning partners to:
9. Be accountable for providing equitable access to learning opportunities that enable all student nurses and midwives to meet the NMC competencies for registration.
We call upon the government and regulators to:
10. Create accountability and penalties for trusts for failure to address racism through the Health and Safety Executive
11. Recognise the experience and training of overseas nurses and midwives. Don’t treat them automatically as unqualified.
12. Evaluate and reflect on Black and Brown staff experiences of discrimination in CQC ratings.
13. Investigate and challenge referrals of Black and Brown nurses and midwives to regulatory bodies with no evidence and no case to answer
14. Change the immigration system for international health care workers to end exploitative visa fees, the denial of recourse to public funds and give automatic indefinite leave to remain.
15. Reinstate third party discrimination into legislation.
We call on all Black and Brown staff to build a collective voice, which will also be supported by all allies to build a just health service.