Overwhelming evidence supports the fact that BAME healthcare professionals are disproportionately impacted by fitness to practise referrals and proceedings.

Last week I reported on a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) report highlighting that BAME nurses as disproportionately impacted by fitness to practise referrals and proceedings.

This is not the first such report.  Many of the other healthcare regulators have reported similar research and findings.  Research, in so far as it relates to fitness to practise for BAME healthcare workers, has clearly indicated that BAME healthcare workers are disproportionately impacted by fitness to practise referrals and proceedings. 

General Medical Council

• BAME doctors are twice as likely as white doctors to be referred to the General Medical Council
• Doctors who trained outside the UK are two and a half times as likely to be referred compared to those who trained in the UK

General Dental Council

• Asian or Other ethnicity, or those that trained outside the UK are more likely to have been involved in fitness to practise cases with the GDC

Social Workers

• Social workers who were male, disabled, Black or from and minority ethnic background, or aged between 40-49 were over-represented in fitness to practise referrals (between 2004 & 2011)
• BAME social workers disproportionately subject to fitness to practise investigations

General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

• The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is trialling redacted fitness to practise reports to guard against racial bias

There is also overwhelming evidence that healthcare workers fare much better in fitness to practise proceedings when they have legal representation and fully engage with the process.

It is clear that BAME healthcare workers are, generally speaking, at a disadvantage in practise because evidence supports that fact that they are disproportionately impacted by fitness to practise referrals and proceedings.  It is also the case however that evidence supports the fact that legal representation and engagement in the process improves the likelihood of a successful outcomes for healthcare professionals in fitness to practise proceedings.  The latter point may be particularly important for healthcare professionals with a BAME background.