Has racism in medicine improved since 2020?

We’re seeing small steps in the run-up to a jump—Mala Rao

The BMJ’s special issue in February 2020 marked a turning point in race equality in the NHS and changed the face of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in UK healthcare.

Ethnic minority staff have gained voice and feel sufficiently emboldened to demand to be heard. Tista Chakravarty-Gannon, head of outreach, strategic delivery, and national engagement at the General Medical Council (GMC), says that this is a transformational change because “you can’t fix what you can’t say.” Talking about EDI has become normalised, she says, and there can’t be a more powerful and effective place to start this journey.

Contrasting sharply with past decades of indifference, we’ve seen demonstrable progress since 2020. For the first time in NHS history, the need to welcome and value international medical graduates (IMGs)—a beleaguered group who have nevertheless played a key role in delivering NHS healthcare—has been acknowledged. In 2022 a comprehensive induction programme aimed at integrating IMGs into life in the UK and the NHS was introduced, which also helps ensure greater patient safety.1

Racism is the most common form of discrimination against specialist, associate specialist, and specialty (SAS) doctors and locally employed doctors in the NHS. This sizable and increasing proportion of the workforce (most of whom are IMGs) has a history of being underappreciated “gap fillers,” with few entitlements for career enhancement or recognition of the experience and value they bring to healthcare.2 But Robert Fleming, a founding member of a group of SAS doctors who launched a roadmap for improvement, says that changes under …