RCN asks: where did the BME NHS Execs go?

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has hosted the launch of a major new report which reveals a shock decline in the level of black and minority ethnic (BME) representation on London’s NHS trust boards.

Health academic Roger Kline’s research found that 17 of the 40 London NHS trusts surveyed had no voting BME board members at all. The RCN understands major East London employers – including Barking Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust and Homerton University Hospital Trust – are among those trusts with no voting board members from BME backgrounds.

Other headlines from the in depth study, produced by Middlesex University Business School include:

just 7.9% of London NHS trust board members are from BME backgrounds, a reduction from 2006 (9.6%).;

this is in contrast to 41% of the NHS workforce in London being from BME backgrounds;

the proportion of London chief executives and chairs from a BME background has also decreased and currently stands at just 2.5%.

Asked at the report launch whether the NHS was guilty of “institutional racism”, Mr Kline said the test would be in the response to the report.

RCN London Regional Director Bernell Bussue also spoke at the launch, saying: “This is a systemic problem that needs action and can only be addressed by a change of culture led from the top. With 41% of London’s NHS workforce now from minority ethnic backgrounds it is important for morale that staff are given better reason to believe they can progress to management level and beyond.

“This new report shows not nearly enough is being done to help increase BME representation at senior levels of London’s NHS. Importantly the report makes a clear link between proper workforce representation at board level, staff experience and the quality of care that patients can expect to receive. The flip side is there are disproportionate numbers of people from BME backgrounds being taken through formal processes of investigation and disciplinary action.”

Roger Kline’s report The “snowy white peaks” of the NHS: a survey of discrimination in governance and leadership and the potential impact on patient care in London and England can be read in full on the Middlesex University website.