Bristol health branch helps show racists the red card

A UNISON health branch was a major influence behind the winning entry of this year’s Social Partnership forum (SPF) award, North Bristol NHS Trust’s campaign to engage staff with its anti-racism policy. Concorde Health branch was heavily involved from the start, having alerted the trust to high levels of racist abuse – both physical and verbal – towards Black staff at its sites, notably South Mead Hospital. And the result has seen a significant improvement in the protection of staff from abusive patients, visitors and sometimes, even, colleagues. The about-turn started a year ago, during the 2019 Black History Month, when UNISON branch chair and equality officer Marcia Dawkins (pictured above) held two open meetings in which Black members could meet with senior trust managers, including the CEO and the equality and diversity officer. “People voiced exactly how they felt,” she says. “They pulled no punches.” Their stories included a patient insisting that they not be treated by “non-English, non-white” people, with a manager changing a staff member as a result, and an incidence of someone writing KKK in a staff elevator, which Ms Dawkins recalls “caused outrage” in that particular meeting. She estimates that at the time there were incidents of verbal abuse on a daily basis. But although the trust had a violence and aggression policy in place, many staff were not even aware it existed. And when individuals did make complaints, she says, no-one was listen...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Article News Black history month black members NHS staff show racism the red card South West Source Type: news