St George's Hospital 2018-06-02 Person 1 5 0

Consultant obsessed with my ethnicity As a Brit with an accent, I am no stranger to xenophobia in the NHS in respect of perceived ethnicity. I was seen by a foreign NHS ENT consultant who had the nerve to ask me where I was from. Imagine the outrage if I had asked her where she was from. I informed her I was a British citizen and turned the conversation to my health, which is the reason I was there. Imagine my surprise when I got a copy of her letter to my GP in which she describes me as “a long term resident of the UK”. I have never been described as a long-term resident in my own country! Not only that, but she had painstakingly trawled through (incorrect) data held about me by the hospital (thanks to her xenophobic colleagues who previously made assumptions about where they decided I must be from) and used that information to state the country she assumed I must be from. The irony is that I am from Britain. The NHS would do well to put consultants through diversity training or ethic sensitivity training. I am deeply offended by her describing me as a “resident” in correspondence copied to others; she has undermined my care because her ignorant misconceptions will prejudice others against me. People can have accents for many reasons, eg being educated abroad or spending substantial time abroad on work contracts. It is not up to NHS Consultants to try and determine the nationality or ethnicity of patients; it is irrelevant and is none of their business. I have decided not to go to my next appointment as I will not be able to contain myself. If only she was as interested in diagnosing my medical condition as she was in “diagnosing” my ethnicity and nationality.