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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Chris Osuh and Geneva Abdul

‘The NHS would collapse within hours’: BME staff say Britain fails to appreciate their roles

Allyson Williams seated in an armchair at her home in north London
Allyson Williams spent 40 years in the NHS as a nurse, midwife, manager and clinical leader. ‘It’s been over 50 years and nobody has learned any lessons.’ Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

“I am fed up of being called names. I know I am Black. I was born Black. And I love being Black. So tell me something I don’t know.”

Those words, uttered 50 years ago as a young nurse facing regular racial abuse from patients on a London hospital ward, were a turning point in Allyson Williams’s life and career.

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