NHS adopts positive discrimination to end white bias at the top

The
NHS is planning to fast-track black and Asian managers into senior positions to
counter a white bias at the top levels of the service, reports the Guardian.

Sir
Nigel Crisp, NHS chief executive, is asking 500 chief executives of hospitals
and primary care trusts to mentor ethnic minority staff in every NHS
organisation in England.

Crisp
has circulated a 10-point action programme to the chief executives without
making any public announcements, says the report. It includes steps to make
race equality one of the core objectives of the NHS.

The
NHS has previously been criticised by the British Medical Association for
promoting people on the basis of "who they know as much as what they
know".

By Mike Berry