Team set up to assess risk to BAME health staff in Walsall

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust said a ‘cabinet’ made up of board members will focus on providing support and devising ways to minimise the threat faced by its diverse workforce.

The announcement, made at a board meeting on Thursday, came in the wake of a Public Health England review, which concluded that death rates among black and Asian people were higher than other groups.

Research also concluded that BAME people were more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than others.

By the end of May, the trust had lost five of its team to the highly contagious disease, including Walsall Manor Hospital staff nurse Areema Nasreen.

The mother-of-three died at the hospital’s intensive care unit in the early hours of April 3 having tested positive for the virus.

Last month, it was revealed Walsall had the highest number of confirmed cases in the Black Country and even had more than Birmingham.

The borough has a BAME population of around 23 per cent – almost 10 per cent higher than the national average.

In a report to the Trust board, chair Danielle Oum said: “I participated in several national forums debating the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on NHS colleagues of BAME background, including delivering a presentation on improving accountability to BAME staff and communities at a webinar hosted by the NHS Confederation’s Black Leaders Network.

“Due to the importance of this issue to this trust, an organisation with a diverse workforce, a cabinet comprising a subset of the Board is being formed to support executive colleagues to consider innovative and effective approaches to mitigating the enhanced risks faced by BAME colleagues in the Covid-19 crisis.”

Richard Beeken, chief executive of the trust, said he had personally written to all BAME members of staff while an “assessment framework” had been published for managers to reassess risk and mitigation on exposure of the virus to all employees.

He added they had also been contacted by NHS Improvement setting out their expectations that all trusts review the diversity of the Covid command and control decision making team.

Mr Beeken said: “We will be agreeing practically as an executive team how we can do this and what changes we could reasonably make in light of the results of that quick review.”