New NHS guidance calls for redeployment of BAME frontline staff based on risk-assessment

FRONTLINE health workers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds could be reassigned roles involving lesser risk of Covid-19 exposure, according to new NHS guidance.

The NHS top brass, on Wednesday (29), warned that BAME staff should be “risk-assessed”, as data suggested that they were more vulnerable to coronavirus complications.

“Emerging UK and international data suggest that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are also being disproportionately affected by Covid-19,” noted NHS Improvement’s chief operating officer, Amanda Pritchard, in a nine-page letter to care organisations in England.

“In advance of their report and guidance, on a precautionary basis we recommend employers should risk-assess staff at potentially greater risk and make appropriate arrangements accordingly,” said the letter.

The letter also highlighted that the Department of Health and Social Care had already asked Public Health England to probe the worryingly high incidence of BAME people, including NHS workers, succumbing to Covid-19.

A recent Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre report had said 34.5 per cent of critically ill Covid-19 patients were from BAME backgrounds.

The figure was alarming as black and Asian communities constituted just 10.8 per cent of the population, according to the 2011 census.

Notably, about one-fifth of NHS staff in England and half of all doctors in London are from a BAME background.

Though the guidance did not enlist specific measures, reports said BAME staff were likely to be redeployed to low-risk sections, provided with proper PPE and be given priority for testing.

Professor Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), backed calls for ensuring better protection to BAME frontline workers, stressing that they were a "particularly at-risk group".

"I think they need to be put in positions where they're not quite so at risk," he told Sky News.

"We don't really quite know why yet, but it's important they are removed from -- if you like -- from danger."

The Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, for instance, had classified BAME employees as “vulnerable and at risk”, and given them priority for health assessment and virus testing.

Highlighting these steps, the trust’s chief executive, Peter Lewis, told BAME workers: “We understand that this is worrying and we want to do all we can to ensure you feel safe and supported during this difficult time.”

He added that “BAME colleagues make a significant contribution to our Trust” and expressed gratitude for “their ongoing commitment”.