(JustPatriots.com)- The UK’s National Health Services (NHS) are requiring interview panels to explain every time a white person is hired over an ethnic minority.
According to a report in the UK Daily Mail last Sunday, a policy at the Royal Free Hospital in London requires its staff to present reports justifying why a new hire was deemed “more suitable.”
Some Royal Free staffers expressed frustration about the policy, telling the Daily Mail that it is a “tick-box exercise” that is further bogging down an already bogged-down bureaucracy at the NHS.
Government ministers recently vowed to crack down on that “waste and wokery” that is costing the NHS billions, with trusts told to cut “diversity and inclusion” positions to focus on frontline medical care.
The Royal Free policy applies to the interview shortlists that include both white and non-white applicants and has been in place at the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust since July 2018 for senior positions. In recent months, the policy was expanded to include any position within the trust.
If a white candidate is chosen over a non-white applicant, the panel chair must provide a report explaining why the white candidate was “more suitable” for the role. No such report is required if the non-white candidate is chosen.
The panel chair must also justify why the non-white candidate was not selected by providing detailed “scoring notes” evidence. The chair is also required to suggest how the failed applicant can “develop their experience, skills, and aptitude” to have a better chance at a job next time.
The reports must be sent to Caroline Clarke, the chair of the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust, within ten days. If a panel chair fails to meet the deadline, he or she would be cited in the Trust’s monthly Workforce Race Equality report.
A spokesperson from the Royal Free London said the hospital is committed to diversity in the workforce and seeks to ensure all candidates, regardless of ethnicity, “have equal opportunities to work” at the hospital.
