Qureshi Z, Suleman S, Richards A, Sheather J, Bishop H.
Published 13 December 2021 : BMJ 2021;375:n3067
Healthcare professionals need clearer guidance on responding to racism in paediatric settings, argue Zeshan Qureshi and colleagues
Everyone has a right to healthcare, but on occasion this can conflict with the right of healthcare professionals to dignity in the workplace. One example is when a patient refuses the care of a healthcare professional on the grounds of race. This is an experience that many doctors from an ethnic minority background have faced: in one US study, 23% of ethnic minority doctors reported that a patient had directly refused their care due to their race. The Medical Workforce Race Equality Standard in the UK also reported that 34.4% of doctors in training from an ethnic minority background had experienced “bullying or abuse from patients, relatives, or the public” in the past year, including racist abuse.
