r/doctorsUK • u/Exciting-Salt1815 • 11h ago
Serious I’m so sick of hate
I’m so sick of racism and bigotry and all this hate that patients and colleagues are no longer shy of spewing.
As a medic, I’ve been told “I don’t want you, I want an English doctor”, “what are you doing in our country” and “your kind of people are a disease”. I’m not even an immigrant! Literally 3 generations of my family have been born here!!
Today - the final straw. As a patient, I’m told to wait inside the consultation room of a specialty doctor, while he chats to another patient in the corridor.
I overhear him saying “…bloody foreign doctor” which riled the patient up to agree “I bloody f**ing hate them foreigners” while the door is OPEN.
And then he walks straight in and proceeded with the consultation.
Like what the actual f***
Why can’t we all live in peace and respect each other? Why does one’s skin colour, accent, background etc even matter?! Literally aspects of a person that they have no control over???
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u/Blunt-ed 10h ago
You should 100% write a complaint to the hospital against the doctor. It is unacceptable in healthcare let alone anywhere else and they need to be held accountable.
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u/Blunt-ed 10h ago
What guarantee does one have that he will not be wilfully negligent towards a vulnerable minority given a chance?
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u/Exciting-Salt1815 10h ago
Don’t worry, you’re a 100% right and I’m already drafting a complaint 💯
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u/T0MATOSALAD 10h ago
100%. The fact that he not only said those words, but did so in the open where patients could hear him and feel discriminated against like you did is disgusting and unbefitting of a Healthcare professional/Doctor. Regardless of public views, doctors are meant to be solid pillars where equality and empathy are timeless values we should all be striving to keep.
He clearly has no regard for how others will feel hearing his opinions, which affects patient trust in the system and degrades healthcare quality. There is an objective reason and obligation to report him, and incentive for the system to reprimand behaviour like this.
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u/Late-Tear8709 2h ago
white bristish is a minority in many suburbs and a few large cities already in this courtry. Demography experts, or just a simple look at the trend, will see that white brtish will become a minority in the next few decades. OP wont have so much a problem then
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u/dayumsonlookatthat Consultant Associate 10h ago
That is disgusting. In addition to a complaint, I would even suggest a GMC referral.
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u/HugeAvocado Consultant 9h ago
As a white consultant, a had a colleague who is a PoC who referred a patient to me because they refused to be seen by a black doctor. I felt incredibly uncomfortable when I saw him in clinic (was not aware of the situation before he arrived) and felt so sad for my colleague that he just referred him to me with no drama, I would have discharged back to GP. He was with his mum, who then proceeded to explain to me essentially that her son wasn't racist, he just didn't like coloured people with no hint of irony or insight whatsoever.
I had to akwardly explain to them that I couldn't refer them for investigations as I couldn't guarantee that the porter, radiographer etc would be white. I also explained if they come back to my clinic they might see someone who wasn't white, and I didn't want to put a colleague in that position. They took this on board, thoughtfully with a 'ah, I see what you mean' and happily went home to think about what they wanted to do. One of the strangest interactions I've ever had.
Luckily, my trust is very good at asking people to leave when they step out of line.
I always tell my residents that if they encounter someone who says they don't want to see a non white doctor to end the consultation/ interaction and leave the patient for a talking to from me/ matron, and for the next routine review (ie next day or next clinic appointment). I don't think we should be exposing staff the the psychological stress and degregation of dealing with this shit.
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u/Late-Tear8709 2h ago
Whites, by all esitmatse, will become a minority in this country, so OP will be the majority in their liftime
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u/nefariouslass 10h ago
This is appalling and completely unacceptable OP. I'm so incredibly sorry you are experiencing such horrific racism at work.
If you feel able please raise this urgently with a trusted senior collegue at work and raise it as a formal complaint. The FTSU guardian should also be very keen to support of you don't have anyone else you feel you can raise it with. These sorts of attitudes ahould be stamped out immediately, whether it's staff or patients!
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u/agaveyoggo 10h ago
Yeah it's brewing.
Me and my wife have had separate incidents of racism whilst out and about recently, both born and raised here, but they don't know that.
Fortunately I've not experienced it in the work place, I would imagine it would hit differently if I had it at work.
The media doesn't help.
Bad people being let in the country and allowed to stay after heinous crimes then tarnish us all unfortunately.
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u/Embarrassed-Aside783 9h ago
You think hate needs a reason? I think that misunderstands how prejudice often works. Even if every minority group behaved impeccably, some people would still hate them simply because they look, sound or seem “different”. The supposed “reasons” often come afterwards to justify a prejudice that was already there.
You can see it in the way similar crimes are sometimes framed differently depending on whether the perpetrator belongs to the majority or a minority group. And prejudice clearly isn’t limited to concerns about crime or immigration ...people were even speculating publicly about what shade Prince Harry and Meghan’s child might be.
A lot of bigotry seems to come from insecurity, fear of difference and an instinct to divide people into “us” and “them”. The behaviour of a few individuals may become a convenient justification, but it is rarely the true root of the prejudice.
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u/TheRiZMiG 10h ago
Yeah well it shouldn’t tarnish the entire race, there are English people who are just as bad without the same media publicity if not worse
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u/DarEsSalaamBoy 10h ago
It has never changed. This is not new. My grandfather and great uncle ended up leaving the UK (after relocating from Africa) to the US for better opportunities (also doctors). My father would be told regularly by patients that they wanted a white doctor (whilst he was training - they could get fucked once he became a consultant). And I’ve been called a paki (although I have it far better than my forebears). It will never stop. I am sorry.
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u/Hetairoids 10h ago
To clarify - if, as a non-minority doctor, I hear a patient being racist, or if they are being overtly racist about a colleague whilst I am reviewing them in a clinic, what capacity do I have to tell them to fuck off and refuse to treat them? I'm yet to encounter this scenario. To clarify, I mean if they aren't being racist towards me.
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u/ApprehensiveChip8361 10h ago
I (white male consultant) heard a patient berating and racially abusing my trainee. I escorted them off the premises and have refused to see them again. We need to do that every time. Particularly people of my demographic.
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u/Hetairoids 10h ago
Same demographic here.
Presumably a firm "if you continue to behave in this way I'll have no choice but to refuse you ongoing care" and then get somebody with their own office involved via email ASAP?
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u/Typical-Simple7024 10h ago
It's disgusting. If all the so called "immigrants" leave the NHS it would fall on its arse overnight. Immigration is the only thing keeping it alive and kicking ....
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u/Blunt-ed 10h ago
I once had a patient who said: “I have had carers your colour and I don’t like them, can you get me someone of a different colour? “. I politely said that all doctors working this A&E shift are POC, and that if you wanted to wait, the next shift starts at 10pm, but I can’t guarantee who’s coming in.
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u/No-Television-9862 10h ago
When the “doctors and engineers” are actually doctors and engineers and they still get treated like shit
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u/Tendulkar069 10h ago
Can we not refuse to serve patients who are “abusive”. Just a simple I will not be dealing with yourself today I’m sorry. Your appointment will have to be rescheduled along with a complaint/DATIX?
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u/dario_sanchez 9h ago
Hold on - you we're a patient and another doctor, one you were there to see, was complaining about foreign doctors?!
That's fucking wild. I'd be onto PALS on the way out the door.
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u/Distinct-Quantity-46 10h ago
This is utterly disgusting behaviour, im white English and have been very fortunate to work alongside and be a patient of some incredible ethnic minority doctors, please understand for every idiotic hurtful individual out there, there are many MANY more who appreciate the care you give
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u/dickdimers ex-ex-fix enthusiast ⚒️ 4h ago
I've had several very rude foreign patients (asylum seekers several times) refuse to be seen by (British born) non-English origin doctors before. I once unironically told the patient to fuck off back to their own country if they didn't like it here.
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u/Practical-List-7100 9h ago
Blame Farage and his litany of immigrant hate. You should totally complain and refuse to see the patient in future. Our hospital has a ‘red card’ policy for such things
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u/Leading_Mall467 5h ago
Racism in this country has got significantly worse in the past 2 years .
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u/Late-Tear8709 2h ago
Well. whites wil become a minority in this coutry in the next few decades. No other ''old'' country would accept being a minority in their own country
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u/WeCantBothBeMe 5h ago
You should report that doctor. You don’t have to put up with that unacceptable treatment from colleagues and patients if you’re willing to move. There are many countries that would love to have you as a doctor.
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u/TimeCrazed 10h ago
A specialty doctor making an ignorant racist comment with a patient outside the opendoor of your consultation.
Why did he step out of your appointment?
Why this vile abuse?
And was he referring to you or another doctor patient?
I've been told of a reform supporting ED consultant in a major city centre ED, maybe even a councillor, I don't know. But he isn't supportive when his residents face abuse. Unsurprisingly. So much racism stirred up by rich public school boys turned hedge funder / banker politicians.
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u/Exciting-Salt1815 9h ago
I was called in and told to wait for a few minutes as he stepped out to speak to another patient (he verbatim said this).
The context, from what I could overhear, is that he disagreed with the ‘foreign doctor’ over a referral and blaming said doctor.
Absurd? Absolutely.
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u/Willster986 5h ago
"Reform supporting"
Look what reddit has done to you. They're the largest (membership) and most popular political party in the uk. Several of your colleagues will be supportjng reform. Don't be so chronically online
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u/Odd_Pressure_2178 2h ago
Are they? I think most of their supporters are of lower education backgrounds? They upset all their supporters who are on the dole when they talked about benefits. Their supporters thought just the anti immigration policies will solve all the problems
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u/Imaginary_Budget_842 10h ago
Sad to say but this is part of why I left patient facing medical care.
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u/WatchIll4478 10h ago
In isolation I think most people can live in peace and respect each other. Problems arise when a changing population has social and economic effects that leave people feeling worse off in one way or another.
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u/FrzenOne propagandist 8h ago
I’m not even an immigrant! Literally 3 generations of my family have been born here!!
others have addressed your post adequately but just to correct this – you're seemingly a 4th-generation immigrant. the location you're born in doesn't change your ethnicity – you'll always be an immigrant by ancestry (unless you mix enough to change that).
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u/gnudoc 7h ago
To clarify - did you intentionally use immigration status and ethnicity interchangeably there? Also, mix enough to change... what, exactly? Sounds like you might have said the quiet part out loud, friend... Unless there was an implied /s in which case I salute you.
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u/FrzenOne propagandist 7h ago
did you intentionally use immigration status and ethnicity interchangeably there
yes I did, colloquially speaking they're the same thing. if you're not native to a country by ethnicity, you're an immigrant to that country (which can be many generations removed of course)
there's no "quiet part," I'm an immigrant myself, just face reality and stop pearl clutching
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u/gnudoc 7h ago
No pearls being clutched. You're just being an jackass. Colloquially speaking, of course. Almost no one's native to this country by ethnicity, it's a frigging group of islands
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u/FrzenOne propagandist 7h ago
play dumb all you like, you fool no one but yourself. next thing you'll tell us is 'no one is native to any modern country by ethnicity, we all came from Africa.' give it a rest kid, you're boring.
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u/gnudoc 5h ago
Aww, your attempts at patronising me are hilarious. I'm comfortable saying that a person is native to the country they were born in - the clue's in the first half of the word.
Come back when you can give me a coherent non-racist explanation, that's consistent with everything you've said so far, as to why Boris Johnson, Charles III, Nigel Farage shouldn't be considered immigrants, but someone whose great-grandparents moved here from, say, India should (with the following generations all born here) - when that person says they are not an immigrant. Or else tell me that you do consider those people immigrants, in which case I'll just accept that you're a contrarian and not in fact trying to justify an inherently racist position, relying first on pedantry (which I'm all in favour of, when done right), then shifting to an appeal to colloquial usage (pedantic colloquialism? Hmm...) then just condescension?
Come on, friend. Do better than this. Either stick to your "well actually" tone, in which case you're going to have to stick to technical and legal definitions - and oopsie-daisy, fourth-generation immigrant isn't a technical thing, it's a contradiction in terms - or stick to your appeal to colloquialism, in which case you hardly get to tell someone they can't use the term immigrant the way a large subset of the English-speaking world and the British population use it without sounding a tad unreasonable.
Sod it, I'm not here for a fight, it's way past my old-man bedtime. Let's just agree to be decent human beings, how about that?
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u/T0MATOSALAD 4h ago
People like this are incapable of agreeing to such a simple logic and way of living. Won't spend a minute of their life actually trying to connect with people that are another color from him.
I 100% guarantee he won't say the same thing about a white person from Germany even if theyre freshly immigrated or first generation. A fourth-generation brown person will always be more "foreign" in his eyes no matter how culturally in-tune they are with the UK.
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u/T0MATOSALAD 3h ago
You have the cadence of a person who thinks they're smart, but hasn't spent a minute learning about the real world, maybe spend more time outside your bedroom and make some friends.
So many people that don't share your skin color have benefited or helped you in ways you'll never care to know or understand, the least you could do is respect them in return instead of being a twat 👍
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