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More than skin deep...

The Commission for Racial Equality has found ‘ great cause for concern’ over the way consultant and senior registrar appointments are made in the NHS. Its formal investigation of such appointments has found that doctors from ethnic minorities can have ‘little confidence’ that their applications will be treated fairly.

The CRE said: ‘The disparities in success rates for different ethnic groups were so marked and consistent, and the omission of procedural safeguards so routine, that the possibility of discrimination cannot be ignored.’

For example, in a sample of 45 NHS employers over a period of six months the inquiry found that 56 per cent of white applicants for consultant posts were shortlisted, compared with only 28 per cent of ethnic minority applicants. In the same group, 18 per cent of white candidates were appointed, compared with six per cent of ethnic minority candidates.

The CRE accepted that it was not able to ‘examine the reasons underlying the disparities in the success rates’, but argues that, given the lack of equal opportun-ities procedures, there is a real possibility of racism. It found that, though all but one employers surveyed had a written equal opportunities policy, ‘in almost every case there was a big gap between policy and actual practice’. The CRE now wants action by the NHS Executive, trusts, health authorities, the Royal Colleges and the BMA to address the issue.