RACIAL abuse so bad it “would make you weep” is “plaguing” the General Hospital, Health and Community Services chief officer Chris Bown has said as he pledged full support for staff seeking to have offenders prosecuted.
The problem has become so widespread that Mr Bown has met police chief Robin Smith to discuss how to crack down on the issue and bring perpetrators to justice.
“Racial abuse is something we must rid ourselves of. Discrimination results in poor care for patients,” said Mr Bown.
“Some of the more serious incidents have been through visitors and public abuse – and racial abuse – of staff. It would make you weep to hear the treatment [of some staff].
“I’ve met the police chief about that, and I will support any member of staff that wishes to pursue prosecution. I’ve made it clear that if they want to pursue it, they would get my full support to do so,” he said.
Mr Bown made the comments at the latest Health and Community Services Advisory Board meeting, where he said the department would now publish an anti-racist statement in support of staff from minority backgrounds.
There have only been six official recorded incidents of racial abuse in Jersey since 2019, but the police chief added his support to Mr Bown’s efforts to stamp it out, particularly at the Hospital’s Emergency Department.
Mr Smith commented: “While incidents of racial abuse are relatively rare, any incident – no matter how minor – can be deeply unsettling especially when directed towards the Island’s dedicated hospital staff. I share Chris Bown’s determination to ensure staff are not subjected to any kind of abuse, racial or otherwise. Where racial abuse occurs, my expectation is action will be taken.”
However, Mr Bown added that the problem was not confined to abuse from members of the public but extended also to the way staff felt they were treated by colleagues and the unconscious bias they felt when applying for promotion.
Although Health and Community Services do not officially log instances of complaints related to matters of race, Mr Bown said he had no reason to believe that the situation would be different from the NHS where data shows those from black and ethnic minorities, having been shortlisted using “a racially blind” process, were then less likely to be appointed at job interviews.
Mr Bown declined to give details of the experiences reported by staff working at the hospital – which he said had been passed on in confidence to preserve their anonymity – but he said they ranged from the most serious cases of abuse from members of the public to treatment staff received from colleagues, and reports that they felt their career progression had been inhibited by their racial background.
