Intended for healthcare professionals

  1. News & Views
  2. Covid-19: Government...
  3. Covid-19: Government will belatedly publish recommendations for protecting ethnic minorities
News

Covid-19: Government will belatedly publish recommendations for protecting ethnic minorities

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m2390 (Published 12 June 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m2390

Read our latest coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

Linked Opinion

Delaying part of PHE’s report on covid-19 and ethnic minorities turned a potential triumph into a PR disaster

All rapid responses

Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed. Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles. The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our attention that a response spreads misinformation.

From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not including references and author details. We will no longer post responses that exceed this limit.

The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.

The real story

Dear Editor
As with the Black Report and Lady Chatterley's Lover, the enduring story about this report will be that the government did not want us to see it. That makes it all the more likely that its recommendations will seek to address structural causes of inequality. We should note them carefully and keep them on the agenda.

Competing interests: No competing interests

14 June 2020
Trisha Greenhalgh
Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences
University of Oxford
University of Oxford

Re: Covid-19: Government will belatedly publish recommendations for protecting ethnic minorities. Why belatedly?

Dear Editor
I had never thought that the Minister could be racist.
Your news item leads me to the inference that the Government was waiting for “good news” to bury this embarrassing report.
They don’t realise that waiting for the Government to “accept the report” and “publish it” will have led to more avoidable deaths.
After all, some patients and some staff who are able to read English could themselves do whatever they can, without waiting for the Government to give their blessings.
Some staff might pluck up enough courage to approach their line managers to put matters right?
Of course some staff may realise that their life is in the hands of their mis-managers.
Time to quit?

Competing interests: Might get caught by the virus?

13 June 2020
JK Anand
Retired doctor
Free spirit
Peterborough, England

Re: Covid-19: Government will belatedly publish recommendations for protecting ethnic minorities

Dear Editor

It is unfortunate that the government decided to withhold valuable feedback from learned individuals and organisations that represent the BAME community and professionals . At a time the whole world is waking up to the realities of inequalities and discrimination that cost human lives, what is happening in the United Kingdom is shocking to say the least. We have lost so many precious lives unnecessarily. and unless we are not willing to learn from the mistakes made so far, many more lives will be lost in the next phases of the pandemic.

Competing interests: No competing interests

12 June 2020
Sajayan Achuthan
Consultant Anaesthetist
Chair, BAPIO West Midlands Division
Back to top