A leading member of hospital staff has said "racism is increasing" while Newcastle Hospitals chief Dame Jackie Daniel has warned her organisation "has a long way still to go" when it comes to staff equality across race, disability and sexuality.
Odeth Richardson is the co-chair of the hospital trust's race equality network. This week she said that "the experience of black and brown staff remains poor" at the trust - adding that staff had experienced an increase in "racist actions" from colleagues and "racism from patients to staff".
Representatives from the ENABLED staff network also spoke out about the "frequent and familiar concerns" among staff that "their disability is not understood". Dame Jackie made the comments in her online blog, and said she was pleased to be able to use the platform to allow representatives from the groups to share their perspective.
This comes on the back of results from the annual NHS staff survey which suggested 20.3% of staff defining themselves as non-white had experienced discrimination from a team leader, manager or colleague. That's above the NHS average - 17.3% - while the figure for white staff is just 6%.
Similarly, 30.3% of non-white staff reported experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from staff in the last 12 months, and 28.1% had experienced the same from patients or members of the public. Each of these figures has risen over the past five years.
The trust runs the Freeman and Royal Victoria Infirmary hospitals as well as many community services in the city.
The picture for those with disabilities is similar. 15.8% of staff with a long term condition or illness had experienced bullying or harassment from a manager in the last year. That's double the figure for those without a condition (7.3%), though slightly below the national NHS average.
Writing online, Ms Richardson - who is the trust's head of occupational therapy and also chairs two national bodies including the Royal College of Occupational Therapists - said the Race Equality Network had helped the trust to take positive steps to address issues around recruitment bias, bullying and harassment, micro aggressions and career progression. But she said the situation remained stark.
She said this provided an opportunity to embed "tangible change" adding: "Despite all the above and the numerous initiatives that has been put in place, the experience of minoritised staff within this organisation has been deteriorating.
"Racist actions from some staff has increased, racism from patients to staff has also increased and the experience of black and brown staff remain poor. I’ve been involved in numerous cultural ambassador investigations, and it saddens me to see how people treat each other.
"We have become adept at papering over the cracks and everything is reported as rosy. Whilst we take pride in looking after our patients, the same pride is not extended to staff."
Her co-chair Poonam Singh added that the "pace of change" was not quick enough, and colleagues would come to her with common issues including telling her that "the blame always comes to me because of my colour" or asking "Why does my face not fit in?".
Cheryl Gascoigne, who co-chairs the ENABLED network, said she had been "disheartened" that some staff had experienced stigma around mental health. She also explained: "There are frequent and familiar concerns regarding staff members feeling that their disability is not well understood. This is often compounded by managers experiencing significant difficulties accessing and applying for support [...] on behalf of their staff."
More positively, her co-chair Steven Hewitt added that the network had been involved in the "creation of some wonderful supportive materials" to support those who are neuro-divergent. He added: "As an educator and proud neurodivergent I am passionate about ensuring that everyone has access to learning, spaces and the workplace.
"As a trust we are a disability confident employer, and like all accolades the hard work doesn’t stop when the accreditation is awarded – it is a continual effort to keep it and advance. We have much more work to do to across all levels, processes and working practices."
One area where staff reported positive experiences was when it comes to sexuality. Co-chairs of the Pride staff network Mark Ellerby-Hadley and Darren Castle-Beal spoke of some of the support they had. Mark said this had been a huge improvement on working in a different industry.
He said: "During my time working for Newcastle Hospitals, it has been a completely different story, everyone I’ve come into contact with has been fantastic and very supportive. I love the fact I can be myself and not have to worry about what people will think."
Darren added: "Living as a gay man in their thirties in 2023 is noticeably an improvement to those who lived and grew up through the earlier times. It is thanks to those people, who remained strong and fought, that we have the rights we have and deserve.
"However we still have a long journey ahead of us and I am passionate about driving that change and making it safer for LGBTQ+ people in the present and future."
Dame Jackie - who has previously spoken of the prejudice and discrimination she herself has faced as a gay woman - paid tribute to the "inspiring" work of colleagues like those above.
She added: "In Newcastle, we pride ourselves on innovation, and our networks play a key role in supporting us to think differently and do better. Our recent staff survey and WRES and WDES results show that we still have a long way to go in treating each other equally and our networks help us to make the changes we need to create a truly inclusive environment for us all.
"I would like us to create an environment where people feel psychologically safe to bring as much (or as little) as their true selves to work as they choose."
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