In the UK, nurses allegedly subjected a Sikh patient to “institutional racism” by tying his beard with plastic gloves, leaving him in his own urine, and providing him with food that he couldn’t eat for religious reasons, as per a media report. The Independent newspaper revealed last week, citing a leaked dossier from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), that the patient had written about the discrimination in a note on his deathbed. The nurses involved were allowed to continue working. The NMC is currently conducting an investigation into these allegations.
A senior whistleblower from the NMC has stated that the regulator has ignored the presence of “institutional racism” within its ranks for 15 years. This failure has allegedly allowed NMC staff to act according to their own discriminatory views by inconsistently applying guidance. The report further details how the nurses involved in the incident continued working despite the patient’s complaint on his deathbed. However, no specific information about the patient or the hospital involved was provided.
The whistleblower has called on the NMC to address the alleged racial bias in their treatment of conduct cases related to Black and ethnic minority nurses and patients. The whistleblower’s concerns regarding racism within the organization were first raised in 2008. It is important to note that apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.