BHM 2022 – Time for Change: Action not Words

The theme for Black History Month UK 2022 is – Time for Change: Action Not Words

Introduction

Earlier this year in USA Black Health and Wellness was considered.
Our three reflections will focus on a call for change and action with the area of healthcare:
1. People of colour who have been influential in healthcare, their call for change and the actions they took.
2. The particular health and well-being problems experienced by people of colour, the influence of history and environment giving rise to specific challenges.
3. The place of education in raising the profile of these matters, changes in approach that are needed and actions being considered, including the influence of the church.

1.The contribution of professional people of colour in the area of healthcare and research.

Too often, the contribution of professional people of colour in the area of healthcare and research, their stories and achievements, have been forgotten or ignored, as has the cultural richness of those “non-traditional” health and wellness practitioners such as doulas and midwives. In many cases people of colour experienced rejection despite their obvious expertise. During Black History Month, they can be recognised and celebrated but change and action is needed. We shall hear their stories and the view of a medical student.

Most of us will have heard of Mary Seacole, a British-Jamaican Nurse, born in 1805, who started as a healer using traditional medicines in Jamaica before travelling to the UK. During the Crimean War, Mary requested to be sent as an army nurse to care for the injured soldiers, but she was refused. Determined, she decided to go on her own, funding her trip herself and establishing the British Hotel. She cared for the sick, injured, and recovering soldiers, often visiting the battlefield to care for the wounded there.
Following her death in 1881, her story was ignored and forgotten.   Her North London grave was rediscovered by Caribbean Nurses in 1973, but it was not until the 21st Century that Britain began to recognise her achievements properly. In 2003, following a nationwide vote, she was named as the Greatest Black Briton and in 2016, a memorial statue of Seacole was erected in London. Most importantly, her story is now part of the National Curriculum.

Less well known is Africanus Horton who was born in Sierra Leone as James Horton. He came to Britain in 1855 where he studied medicine at King’s College London and Edinburgh University and took the name Africanus as a symbol of pride in his birthplace. After achieving his MD, Horton was commissioned back to West Africa as a surgeon in the British Army. In his book The Diseases of Tropical Climates and Their Treatment, published in 1874, Horton describes some of the clinical symptoms of Sickle Cell Disease, thirty-six years before the recorded discovery of the disease in 1910.

James Samuel Risien Russell was a Guyanese-British consultant physician and professor in Neurology. He began studying medicine in the 1880s at the University of Edinburgh and continued his postgraduate studies in London, Paris, and Berlin. In 1898, Russell became a resident medical officer at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. While working there, he completed research that contributed to our understanding of the Cerebellum. His research also contributed to our understanding of how vitamin deficiencies can damage the brain and spine.

Born in Saint Vincent in the Caribbean in 1858, Annie Brewster moved to South London with her family in the 1880s. She was known as ‘Nurse Ophthalmic’ due to her skill in treating patients with eye conditions, and she later became the nurse in charge of the Ophthalmic Wards. Brewster was one of the first Afro-Caribbean nurses that we know worked in Britain during this period. In 2018 she received public recognition when her photograph was projected onto the side of the old Royal London Hospital building as part of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the NHS.

Jamaican-born physician and civil rights activist, Harold Moody, graduated in 1910 after studying medicine at King’s College London. Despite finishing top of his class, Moody was denied work due to prejudices against the colour of his skin. Following this rejection, he established his own medical practice in South London. Moody is cited as being highly involved in the organisation of the local community during World War 2, with historians noting that ‘he was the first doctor on the scene’ in a south London bombing during the Blitz. Moody was also an influential civil rights activist, campaigning against racial prejudice. In 1995 a blue plaque was erected in Moody’s memory above his home in South London.

As a member of the Committee of the National Council for Combating Venereal Disease and honorary member of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society, John Alcindor worked to prevent syphilis and tuberculosis in Great Britain. When the First World War broke out in 1914, he wanted to use his skills to help with the war effort. But despite his qualifications and experience, he was rejected outright by the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 because of his ‘colonial origin’. Despite rejection, he signed up as a British Red Cross volunteer helping countless wounded soldiers at London railway stations as they returned from the battlefields. Deservedly, he was later awarded a Red Cross Medal for his life-saving work.

In USA, ground-breaking discoveries in the storage and processing of blood for transfusions were made by Charles Drew who also managed two of the largest the blood plasma programs in World War II. As World War II raged in Europe, Drew led a special medical effort known as “Blood for Britain.” He organized the collection and processing of blood plasma from several New York hospitals, and these life-saving materials were shipped overseas to treat causalities in the war. Also, in 1941, Drew spearheaded another blood bank effort, this time for the American Red Cross, but rightly quit due to their discriminatory policies. He then served as a professor at Howard University in 1941 and also became the chief surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital. Later that year, he became the first African American examiner for the American Board of Surgery. In 1944, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People honoured Drew with its 1943 Spingarn Medal for “the highest and noblest achievement” by an African-American “during the preceding year or years.”

In more recent times racially discriminated against when applying to train as a nurse, Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu later became the country’s first sickle cell nurse specialist and has been at the forefront in pushing for equality for BAME patients and healthcare professionals. In her role as a nurse, health visitor, and tutor, Anionwu worked with black and ethnic communities within London, where she encountered patients with sickle cell disease. In 70’s Britain, not much was known about the disease and it wasn’t seen as a significant public health issue. In 1979, with Misha Brozovic, she founded the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassemia Information, Screening, and Counselling Centre. In 2004, she was awarded the Royal College of Nursing Fellowship for her work for sickle cell and thalassaemia counselling services and transcultural nursing. She became Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu (DBE) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2017.

Described by the Health Service Journal as a ‘powerhouse who has possibly done more than anyone to raise the issue of racial inequalities in the NHS’, Yvonne Coghill has – quite literally – set the standard for race equality within the NHS and other healthcare organisations. Coghill began training in 1977 and qualified as a nurse in 1980. By 1986, she had moved into her first NHS management position. She had applied for five nursing director roles but was rejected each time, despite her experience and qualifications. Then from 2004 to 2007, Coghill worked within the Department of Health, including working as private secretary to the then NHS chief executive, Lord Nigel Crisp. Crisp mentored Coghill as part of the Leadership Race Equality Action Plan. Since then, Coghill has influenced and led equality and inclusion strategies and programmes across the NHS. She headed a rapid inclusion programme in London, involving short, medium, and long-term interventions intended to “support and help people of colour that are working in the NHS to have a better experience.” In 2012, Coghill received an OBE, becoming an Officer of the British Empire for services to healthcare and in 2018, she became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her commitment to equality and diversity in the NHS. Despite announcing that she would retire, Coghill is a member of the advisory group of the COVID-19 impact inquiry team for The Health Foundation.

Born in Huddersfield in the 1960s after her parents moved to the UK from Jamaica, Dr Jacqui Dyer has been described as ‘a major catalyst for improvements in mental health care’. Based in London since 1989, Dyer’s professional experience working within mental health as well as community and social care is extensive. Black Thrive was set up by Dyer to connect the community with system leaders to ensure that the voices in the community were heard and to implement real systemic change. Dyer’s life’s work has been tackling racial inequality – particularly within mental health, an area she has said ‘picks up the experience of what the rest of people’s lives are throughout the rest of the system.’ In 2018, Dyer was an advisory panel member of the Independent Mental Health Act Review and lobbied for a particular focus on African and Caribbean people of the UK. Dyer has been the President of the Mental Health Foundation and is responsible for the Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK. She is also the Mental Health Equalities Advisor for NHS England and Health Education England. Dyer was appointed a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for her services to mental health – but her work is far from over.

A medical student, Temitope Fisayo, suggests that Black History Month is a chance to reflect on the contributions black British people have made to life in the UK. He says: We share stories of heroes from our past. We seek to popularise their achievements. They are icons with legacies that galvanise those of us who can see ourselves in their stories. Heroes are useful. They can inspire change long after they’ve passed – and their formidable achievements deserve to be remembered. But then I thought a little harder. For all these heroes, the UK still struggles to recognise black people and our needs. Racism remains a huge problem in our hospitals and medical schools, as well as in society more generally. For every hero in our past who overcame discrimination, there are countless others who were denied, whose names and contributions we may never know.

Time for Change: Action Not Words

From these brief biographies it can be seen that, despite their qualifications and expertise, healthcare professionals have, not just in the past but also in contemporary times, been unrecognised, ignored and passed over. Now is the time for change. What actions need to be taken to address the problems of bias, both blatant and hidden?

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Information correct at August 2022.
The above abridged excerpts come from the following websites where more information may be found:
https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/black-history-month-2022/
https://alderhey.nhs.uk/contact-us/press-office/latest-news/black-history-month-2020-celebrating-black-medical-pioneers?q=%2Fcontact-us%2Fpress-office%2Flatest-news%2Fblack-history-month-2020-celebrating-black-medical-pioneers
https://www.yourworldhealthcare.com/uk/news/black-history-month-2021-healthcare-heroes-part-two
https://www.prmaconsulting.com/blog/black-history-month-celebrating-10-pioneers-in-healthcare/
https://www.yourworldhealthcare.com/uk/news/black-british-history-healthcare-heroes-
https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/celebrating-black-communities