Colleagues still mock mandatory equality and diversity training, indicating that they never listened to what they were being taught in the first place, and why it is so important.
Instead of pondering the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on both health professionals and patients of ethnic minority backgrounds, they retain that piercing smug cynicism, deriding the training as a tick-box nod towards political correctness alone.
Am I surprised? Not really, for this has been my experience ever since I moved to this locality seventeen years ago. Working in primary care, I had to attend an equality and diversity session as part of my induction even then. Coming in from London, and from a diverse milieu, I was gobsmacked when that session just descended into participants not only openly rebelling against attending, but also using overtly racist language and stereotyping.
It was disheartening coming into an organisation like that. Experiences such as these have always made it hard for me to recommend a healthcare job in this locality to those who have previously experienced the profound trauma of discrimination, harassment and bullying at work.
It is sad, that despite witnessing the inequality of outcomes through the pandemic, we continue to routinely deride efforts to tackle discrimination in healthcare provision and employment alike. If only we could have listened first time around, all the way back two decades ago. Nope, but the joke remains.
Last modified: 22 September 2024
