Black and Asian nurses, including those who have migrated to support our NHS, have made a critical contribution to health and social care. Yet in the first month of the UK lockdown, 71% of nurses and midwives who died were from Black and Asian backgrounds.

In February 2021, with the UK still in its second national lockdown, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asked the Government to consider the “extent to which (and reasons why) BAME staff were less likely to report having access to PPE and being tested for PPE and more likely to report feeling pressured to work without adequate PPE.”

The following October, a Lessons Learned report recognised that the higher incidence of Covid amongst Black and Asian staff “may have resulted from higher exposure to the virus,” but there is little address to racism in the report.

Our research indicates that most Black and brown healthcare staff do not see racism as individual, isolated behaviour but as a structural practice embedded in the institutional culture.

Join our speaker Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro for a screening of the documentary 'Exposed', followed by a panel discussion with the research team of 'Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic".

This in-person event is organised the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology Health and Migration Research Network.