How should medical staff react to this:

Utterly disgusting,I cant understand what the country is coming to. I worked as a Nurse all my life, worked with Nurses and Doctors from every Country in the world and have never heard anything like this, why cant people just get along and accept each other, their competence, the colour of their skin, these professionals treat everyone equally.

I work as a volunteer in a 1,000 bed hospital and very few of the medical staff are white British, including the most senior consultants and surgeons. This is the reality of the NHS and thank goodness these wonderful people continue to work here despite the way a minority of patients treat them. On one of my wards we have a white British sister whose speech is very hard indeed to understand because she was born deaf, so its not only staff whose first language was not English who have indistinct speech.

I thought that all had to take an English exam before being employed by the NHS, at their own expense too.

Even those whose first language is English, such as those Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.

The language skills of the Indian consultant I saw this week were impeccable, yes, he had an accent but so do I apparently - according to some of our relatives whose first language is not English.

I so agree about the language. My DH had a stroke which affected the speech processing area of his brain, and found it almost impossible to follow anyone who had a strong regional or ethnic accent. Unless I was there to interpret he had no clue what was being said to him. I kept telling the staff of his difficulties, but no notice was ever taken. He needed good clear English, spoken slowly, as his brain was always doing catch-up. He would never have dreamt of refusing treatment from anyone, and was so grateful to everyone who cared for him.

If you want to choose your surgeon by colour then go private. Who ignored my "Dr I've had blood in my stools for some time now" a white gp. Who acted like lightening to get me a colinoscopy - a chinese dr. Who refused to delay the procedure because the woman ahead of me had kicked off big time (I was the last patient on the list) causing a mega delay-an indian doctor & his team who obviously had a great deal of time for him. Not only did he put me at ease, insisted there was no rush, explained everything, showed me the screen, he discovered the cause (haemorrhoids) & treated them there and then because he could & it made sense 'not to put me through all this again' he toldme it wasn't cancer because he wanted me not to worry. Bless him. I changed my GP after that.

Solange...I have to take issue with you on the language front, as when DH was in hospital with a serious condition, the language skills from several EU countries ( Italy, Spain and Greece) was so poor that errors were made, one which could have been awful! The Indian, and African staff ( not brought up in Britain as they had clear accents) were easy to understand and their English was very good indeed ( in the case of the Indian nurse, better than the British!)

GrandmaJan ... agree, me too .... like I said previously I owe my and my husbands life to competent surgeons and care staff

Of course it can go both ways. The reality is that in 99.9% of case, it goes the same way. Fact.

Management do not support staff in the nhs, unfortunately..

Graninda .... especially when they call you a racist, not because you’ve complained about their colour but their competence. Peter Duffys book ‘Whistle in the Wind’ is a perfect example of exemplary consultant being chased out by incompetent colleagues with a dirty nasty little agenda.

Some of the best Doctors and Consultants I’ve worked with aren’t British. There are so many talented doctors from India, Iraq etc. They are well trained and very caring. It was an excellent consultant urogynaecologist who repaired my prolapse almost 10 years ago and if I ever need more surgery I would ask for him. As a Nurse I honestly have to say I’ve never witnessed any racism or racial abuse but have heard colleagues who have. Patients have to remember these doctors could save their lives.

Simple enough to explain your 'usual' ENT understood the problem perfectly and that you would like to see him again next time.

It hurt my heart to watch it. The management should back him up. They should refuse those patients if they behave like that. What’s the matter with people.

I used to see a consultant about my ear on a regular basis. Once I was seen by someone else (he happened to be black) and he really didn't understand my problem which the usual consultant did so I requested to be seen by the usual man. Nothing to do with the colour of anyone's skin. I wondered why everyone was so cross with me - now I realise! What do do in these circumstances when the person of colour is not competent?

And I'd say paying privately to choose colour of surgeon is just as wrong and illegal anyhow

Grandmablue - who says otherwise? What is the point of your comment. No-one has said here that a black patient should be able to choose the colour of their doctor/surgeon.

I just don't understand this irrational dislike of fellow human beings because of their skin colour, nationality, race, gender etc. Quite honestly such people are rather pathetic.

The comment from the surgeon about not feeling backed by management is right. Too many managers in the NHS have either been there for so many years that they have totally forgotten what life is like outside the hospital and also have to justify their position to the CEO. The CEOs are basically number crunchers , whose job is to balance the books -unlike the old Hospital Secretaries who had usually worked from the bottom up, knew the staff and also cared about them.
Mr Hancock's comment is wrong. All very well putting up notices saying that certain behaviour will not be tolerated, but it's pretty toothless. When have you heard of any patient being in court for treatment of any NHS staff? It actually needs to be made illegal that any staff within hospital walls are abused be it verbal or physical. Just because you "pay " for the privilege of free treatment , does not give you the right to refuse treatment just because you don't like the look of the person treating you!

Racism happens from all races, you just need to read Doreen Laurence to understand that ... disgusting woman. Perhaps she thinks only black firefighters should fight fires where predominantly black people live.

It can also be difficult for foreign staff when working with very strong, regional accents, especially at first- and will need support.

Juicy ''So for me the language needs to be as good as the skills.''

of course, and that would apply to many white doctors too. However, OH remembers one patient who was clearly racist, when he was junior doc- who said he could not understand the Indian nurse who was treating him- making comments about her accent and pigeon English - when it was perfectly clear to all that her English was perfectly understandable to all staff and all previous patients.

Your posts are ace Solange.

Jucylucy the language problem will increase. Brexit has meant that we have lost tens of thousands of EU staff, most with excellent spoken English. They chose to leave due to the idea that as the country is leaving the EU, abuse is now acceptable. The government have stated that the shortfall of staff, nurses and doctors will be coming from Asia and Africa. Because these staff are now no longer given the right to stay after 3 years, they have fewer applicants. Frankly, beggars can’t be choosers. The poor language skills are considered a better option than no doctors at all.

I had the kindest most caring surgeon who is also Indian . I think people Like this patient who wanted a white doctor are the most ignorant of society and should be treated as such .I would have said yes go home and wait for a white man to come along but it may be a long wait .i would have made sure it was a very long wait too .

Having received a lot of NHS care in the last 3 years for 2 different primary cancers and spinal problems, I can honestly say the vast majority of the staff have not been British. In fact there is only one English nurse I particularly remember and that's only because he worked nights and his shoes squeaked! All my surgeons have been Asian, the nursing staff came from all over the world and they have all, without exception, been fabulous. Anyone who refuses treatment from staff due to racism should be sent home and have to start their process for treatment all over again; and should they be un?fortunate enough to be allocated staff that they disapprove of again, then the same thing should happen. If it means so much to anybody that they actually care about the ethnicity of the staff prepared to treat them then perhaps they should go private.

Anyone refusing care based on skin colour/ethnicity should be refused treatment. No ifs or buts. Its disgusting in our society that people are allowed to get away with such bigotry and blatant racism. ?